Murder Hobo Squad: A Lost Mine of Phandelver/Dragon of Icespire Peak & Beyond D&D 5E record (Beware Spoilers!)

(Talindra is still currently guest DMing for us and I am playing Reginald the Bard)

With our short rest over, we had a quick chat about the trinkets on the wagons.  Apparently the mercenaries had been told they could keep such things as part of their payment, as the Stronghold was only interested in the supplies so we took the loot.  Karson and Ramond took a heal potion each, meaning everyone has one each and the front line melee characters mostly have two.

We got back on the road and a while later we passed a ruined guard tower.  We could see two Hobgoblins and a large horn on the top.  We acted casual and 10 minutes up the road we ducked in to the woods, ditched the wagons and doubled back.  A few archers stayed at ground level ready to fire while everyone else stealthed up the 100 foot tower.  The two goblins died quite easily and didn’t get the chance to sound the alarm and I learned to ask what armour the enemy is wearing instead of assuming Hobgoblins would be easy to hit.  Chainmail with shields with partial cover means I wasn’t going to shoot them from ground level and should never have tried!  As the last Hobgoblin fell some sort of black slime creature oozed out of the cracks and attacked, but Araloth landed a critical blow early on and the creature wasn’t able to pose any kind of threat.

We took the enemies chainmail to sell later and propped them up to look like they might be alive and lazy from ground level and smashed the mouthpiece of the horn so it would be useless but look fine to those below, and then got on our way back to the wagon.

15 minutes after we got back on the wagons we arrived at the gateway to the Stronghold.  As we saw this we had a brief chat about what we were actually going to do inside.  We discussed starting a fire but we were afraid of it catching the trees alight.  Some nature etc checks revealed that the corruption had made the forest dryer and more flammable than usual and it wouldn’t take much for things to go very wrong.   Hobgoblin archers on the walls had the gates opened for us as we drew near, and we nonchalantly rolled in.   One of the Hobgoblins had us stop before we entered.  He asked how the raid went and Reginald said, “It went like a charm.  You know these villager types.  They’ve no real fight in ‘em.”  He said he wished he could see some action too and ushered us through.

As we rolled inside we were approached by a Hobgoblin we would soon discover was the Quartermaster.  He was looking for a spy amongst our numbers he had been told about.  Reginald quickly spoke up and insisted they had killed him in the woods earlier that day when he tried to run away with our loot.  He thanked us and let us park properly before having his men unload the wagons.  As we pulled up I noticed the same golden orb I had seen before floating in the air above us.  It instantly vanished and I failed my roll to work out what it was.  I chose not to react as we were being supervised by the enemy at this point.

As we looked around we could see that this Stronghold was still heavily under construction.  Near the unloading area we could see a large domed building that looked recently completed.  It had no windows but inside we could hear sounds of Hobgoblin revelry.  This was apparently some kind of barracks/bar/recreation area and a large source of reinforcements for the gate.  One of our primary goals would be to delay their response to any invasion.

We slunk off to a corner to talk in private and survey our surroundings.  Over time it became apparent that only Hobgoblins entered the domed building so human infiltration might be difficult.  Hobgoblins would come and go through the area occasionally (10-15 in the area at any given time) and the tents around the gate all appeared to contain more Hobgoblins.  We have a hand drawn map of the area that the spy Yalek gave us earlier.  It pointed us towards the area the leadership would be gathering in.  We went around and had a casual look.  It was a small courtyard with a central tower with raised rope bridges 20 feet in the air.  We also saw our first full fledges cultists in the area.  We were not going to get much of a look around without risking triggering a fight or getting caught so we backed out to discuss our plans.  After a good long chat discussing infiltrating the barracks, nailing that door shut, and trying to trigger fights between groups of mercenaries we settled on our plan and used the sending stones to call the army, who would arrive around an hour later.

55 minutes later we approached the Quartermaster to ask for our wagons back as we wanted to go on another raid.  He got grumpy because nothing was planned and told us to get them ourselves.  We parked the wagon in the courtyard and loaded it up with lots of empty boxes to put captured goods in and a barrel or two of nails from the nearby construction supplies.  We hitched up the horses badly at the front.  When we could hear the army nearby Ramond freed the horses and him and Thorovir pushed the wagon straight through the doors to the barracks, wedging them in the middle.  The rest of us then smashed in the wheels so it would not move.  We hoped that the barrels of nails would break on impact making it harder for people to climb through without getting hurt.  We then ran towards the leadership to end any chance of an alliance there.

Thorivor had an early start and Devere had been unavailable tonight and this was going to be a long fight so we called it there.  This should be the final combat before we return to camp and end this adventure, but we will see.

I have spent 5 days last week adding the rest of the campaign to Roll20.  For anyone else looking to run DoIP and the Beyond modules for it I would definitely recommend reading everything before you begin.  You can get away with not reading the Beyond modules until after DoIP, but the Beyonds are not written clearly.  There’s stuff in modules 2 and 3 that you could really do with knowing at the start of the first.  Some of the encounters are not written very clearly either.  There is some very cool stuff in there though and I’m super keen to run my players through it.

Do not click the above link if you hope to play as it contains teasers and probable spoilers.

Anyway, back to this session.  Remember, Talindra is still currently guest DMing for us and I am playing Reginald the Bard. This is an Adventurers League module so this fight plays out as if there are multiple other player groups in the background doing things that affect our fight and vice versa.  This explains a few things that happen (IE the zombies and the healing wind stuff)

Having signalled our army and blocked the barracks we ran towards the leaders of the Cult and the Hobgoblins to prevent a permanent alliance being formed.  With the sounds of battle rising behind us they were on alert and we drew weapons and charged straight in.  Melandrach punched a nearby Cultist while Devere stepped forward and blasted the area with channelled his gods divinity in to the Radiance of the Dawn, burning every enemy nearby that could see him, killing two cultists.  He then summoned his Spiritual Weapon to attack the Hobgoblin Captain, but missed.  The Captain then called out in goblin, “Get that f*£$!ing cleric!”, sunk an enchanted thunderous arrow in to Devere, and then backed off around a corner.  Hiding behind Karson, Bilba shot and killed the Hobgoblin archer in the bridge in front of the group.  The Fanatic summoned her Spiritual Weapon to attack Melandrach, and then prayed to Tiamat who blasted Melandrach with Sacred Flame before retreating behind the tower.  Karson ran towards the Captain, Hunter Marking him and Swinging at him ineffectually with both attacks.  The two Hobgoblins shot at Devere and Karson, nearly killing Devere.  Reginald stepped forward, casting Heat Metal on the Captain and then Inspired Devere to better defend himself.  One of the Cultists stabbed Reginald and the other flanked Karson, swinging and missing.  Araloth attacked the flanking Cultist and then moved to flank against the Captain with Karson.  Thorivor moved in to the open and shot at but missed the Hobgoblin above Devere.  He gritted his teeth and fired again, hitting but nor killing, before ducking behind the tree.  Ramond ran forwards, effortlessly cutting down the Cultist on Reginald on his way past.  Then, to our horror, the three dead Cultists arose as Zombies and joined the fight, attacking Reginald, Ramond and Melandrach!

Melandrach unleashed a flurry of blows on his Zombie and then chased after the Fanatic.  Devere healed himself, adding the Bardic Inspiration to it.  His Spiritual Weapon hit the Captain, who dropped his bow, drew a Greatsword and missed one swing on Karson, but hit with his second.  Bilba sunk an arrow in to the Zombie by Ramond while the Fanatic cast Hold Person on Araloth (Natural 1 on his save.  Araloth is definitely the king of failing saves).  Her dagger missed its attack on Melandrach.  Karson missed the Captain, but killed the Cultist with his offhand.  The Hobgoblins shot at Devere (Reg tried to help but failed) and Ramond.  Then a new Hobgoblin appeared on the northern bridge and shot at Melandrach who deflected part of the impact.   Reginald’s heat metal burned the captain again while he Viciously Mocked the Hobgoblin above him.  Two new cultists appeared from the West and attacked Ramond.  Thorivor missed a shot at Reginald’s Hobgoblin and Ramon Smote his Zombie, giving himself temporary hit points.  The Zombies laid in to Reginald who took the blows, failing his concentration save.  The dead cultist by Karson then rose up as a Zombie.

Melandrach beat the Fanatic with his staff and then unleashed a Flurry of Blows on her, almost killing her, and then moved around the corner away from the Spiritual Weapon.  Devere healed Karson, then stepped up to flank and smack a zombie.  The Captain took a critical hit against the Held Araloth, and then swung at Karson, but Reginald was able to distract him.  Bilba shot at a nearby zombie while the Fanatic reached out and drained the life out of Melandrach, dropping him to the ground.  She then moved up and sent her Spiritual Weapon after Reginald.  Karson critted the Captain and shoved his short sword straight through his eye and out the back, while hitting a zombie with his other weapon and taking an arrow from a Hobgoblin.  Reginald took two arrows, and Ramond took one.  A new Hobgoblin stepped out from the west and shot Thorivor twice.  Reginald hurled damaging insults at the Hobgoblin above him, then squeezed between the zombies and healed Melandrach.  The Cultists attacked Ramond.  With benefit from Ramond’s inspiring words (He has a once per day power on his sword), Araloth was finally able to overcome the Hold Person spell.  Thorivor put a Seeking Arrow in to the Fanatic and backed up down the side alley.  Ramond smote a cultist to death as the Zombies lashed out at Devere (Warding Flare for defence), Reginald, and Karson.  The sense of dread that had hung over the camp faded, and a wave of hope and optimism washed over us all.  (With this second wave coursing through us we gained the ability to use a bonus action to spend hit dice to heal just the once during this encounter.  I assume the DM thought we were in serious trouble!)

Then Claugiyliamatar swooped across the battlefield, with a deafening roar and the beat of massive leathery wings, shaking us to the core as the wind reached staggering speeds; scattering debris and bodies like trash on the wind.  “Behold, wretched ones!”  Claugiyliamatar roared with fury, “The price of your hubris is at hand!”  She then flew overhead and attacked a nearby tower with a large ballista being requisitioned by human soldiers.  The tower vanished with a cloud of her poisonous breath and none survived.

Melandrach picked himself up and chased after the Fanatic and brought his staff around the side of her head from behind, causing her neck to break, and she fell to the floor, while he healed up before stepping over her corpse.  Devere moved to flank a zombie and hit it hard, before healing himself.  Bilba killed a zombie while Claugiyliamatar could be heard tearing apart nearby soldiers.  The hobgoblins shot at Thorivor, Melandrach, Bilba, and downed Karson.  Reginald’s insults finally became too much for the Hobgoblin above him, who died as Reg healed Karson.  He then called out, “Guys, we did what we came for.  We can leave now”.  The last Cultist swung at and missed Ramond.  Araloth made a run for a ladder up the central tower while healing up.  Thorivor shot a zombie who weathered the blow while Ramond whiffed his swing against the last cultist and healed up.  The zombies went for Devere and Karson, who fell unconscious once again.  Melandrach ran to his aid and wailed on his zombie.  Devere hot his zombie and weapon hit Karson’s, but both just absorbed the blows.  Then the dragon retuned, swooping down to claw at Araloth.  Reginald tried to distract her, but she was too enraged. (The dragon was clearly being nerfed by the module, thank god!)  She flew off to murder more of the army right after as Bilba sunk an arrow in to a Hobgoblin.  The Hobgoblins fired ineffectually as Reginald healed up and insulted a zombie.  The last cultist hit Ramond as Araloth tried to attack a Hobgoblin and tried to take cover from the skies.  His Hobgoblin then died to an arrow from Thorivor as Ramond killed his Cultist and moved up.

Melandrach hit a zombie who just took it, and then Radiant Sunbolted both Zombies, finally killing them.  Devere moved up and healed Karson and then sent his Spiritual Weapon to attack a Hobgoblin.  The dragon swooped overhead but ignored us for now.  Bilba ran to the east and murdered the Hobgoblin over there.  Karson stood up and healed himself, before grabbing the Captains fancy bow from the floor.  He then used it to take a shot at the Hobgoblin, but missed.  Outgunned and outnumbered, the Hobgoblin ran away.  We then looted the bodies we could, and Ramond just grabbed the captain’s body, and we ran back towards the gates where our army could be heard.  On our way out Claugiyliamatar returned, diving down at us readying a deep breath.  As it exhaled a spectral fey creature appeared and sucked all the poisonous gas into itself and vanished in a blinding flash of light.  Claugiyliamatar roared in frustration.  Bilba plinked a shot at her before running out with the rest of us.  Once we made it to safety we shoved everything in the Bag of Holding to sort out later.

Once the battle was over and we were walking back to camp with the army, Valero came over to talk.  She thanked us for our efforts on behalf of The lords Alliance, and handed us a pouch of 200 gold as a reward.  She said the order of the Gauntlet would be happy to cast some spells for us for a Token fee, such as Identify.  Later in the day we took them up on that offer (Items below) and had a long chat about who gets what magic item.  We then camped for the night as it had been a long day.  In the monring we will likely leave camp and head back to Phandalin.

Loot

Non-Magical Half Plate – Taken by Devere

Non-Magical gemmed golden pendant of a 5 headed dragon (300gp)

Periapt of Wound Closure – Wondrous Item, uncommon (requires attunement) – Taken by melandrach

• While you wear this pendant, you stabilize whenever you are dying at the start of your turn. In addition, whenever you roll a Hit Die to regain hit points, double the number of hit points it restores.

Pearl of Power – Wondrous Item, uncommon (requires attunement by a Spellcaster) – Taken by Ramond

• While this pearl is on your person, you can use an action to speak its command word and regain one expended spell slot. If the expended slot was of 4th level or higher, the new slot is 3rd level. Once you use the pearl, it can’t be used again until the next dawn.

Thundercloud Longbow – Weapon (longbow), rare (requires attunement) – Taken by Thorivor

• You have a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon.
• If attuned this longbow empowers each shot with a thunderous strike, adding 1d4 thunder damage to each shot.
• In addition if attuned by an arcane archer it allows the user to regain a use of their arcane shot once per day as a bonus action and improves the save DC for arcane shots by +1.

Talindra is still DMing for the first part here.  I take over again as they arrive back at town.

The party woke up the next day in the army camp and gathered from breakfast while the army dismantled the Hobgoblin fort around them.  They discussed their plans for the day and while the group needed to return to deal with unfinished business in Phandalin, Reginald wanted to stay with the army to see what happened next and gather some accounts from soldiers on the other battles involved in this victory.  He broached the subject of splitting the loot and said he had an interest in the golden jewelled holy symbol of Tiamat they had taken off the cultists’ leader.  He said he wondered if it had a greater significance and wasn’t purely decorative.  The party were more than OK with this and he waved them off on their way, saying he might stop by Phandalin at a later date for a visit.  Ramond also warned them that Claugiyliamatar had been scrying on them so they should take care.  Who knows how much she knows about them, or if she will continue to take an interest and come seeking revenge at any time.

As the party headed out along the road out of Kryptgarden Ramond spoke up.  He thought the party needed a name, otherwise how are people like Reginald, or the soldiers of the army supposed to ask for them? (DM: They’d said they were going to pick a name a month or so back when they were offered positions within the Lords Alliance, but they never did)  They bandied around a few names (DM: And spent some time on random party name generators laughing at silly suggestions) and have settled on “The Fellowship of Phandalin” (FoP) for now, with the possibility of changing it should they have a better idea.

Two nights out of Kryptgarden they camped about a mile away from the Mere of Dead Men, and during the first watch some Ghouls from the swamp wondered out from the trees and disturbed their rest.  It was a cloudy night so a short battle occurred in pitch darkness.  The Fellowship (DM: That name already belongs to another group, but what am I supposed to do?) dispatched them without too much difficulty (DM: Karson did get paralysed after charging in), but despite having time to pelt them with ranged attacks before they could become a threat, and few people ran in to melee without thought.  Ramond complained about this after the battle, insisting once again that they need to learn to think tactically and work better as a team so as not to put themselves in unnecessary risks.  They’d done this in the final battle in Kryptgarden and it had made things harder than needed.  They were too spread out and over exposed then, and they shouldn’t have been.

About ten miles outside of town as they were cutting across the plains, they encountered two Ogres arguing in Giant, which none of them understood.  The party discussed this at a distance and spread out in to a defensive formation (two spread out lines perpendicular to the path) and slowly approached the Ogres.  As they drew closer the Ogres noticed them and approached.  The party tried to look like they weren’t on the attack, while still being ready to defend themselves.  Ramond drew his sword.  The ogres demanded the Fellowship give them some food.  Ramond refused, asking why they are even here, this close to town.  They said there was a big white dragon up in the mountains near their home killing everything so they’d had to leave.  Devere said they were hunting a white dragon.  The Ogre said, “Well it’s over in the mountains.  Now give us some food”.  Ramond relaxed and went over to the wagon to look at the Fellowships supply of rations.  Devere tried to see what the Ogres had to trade for the food.  The Ogre offered not to put his club through his face in exchange.  Everyone agreed this was a good deal.  Ramond put ten days of rations in the road half way between both groups and told them to take it and move along.  He said if he heard about them causing trouble for anyone they were going to come back and deal with them.  The ogres acted unbothered and began stuffing their faces as the party gave them a wide berth and continued on their way to town.

DM: We switched DMs at this point.  I’m back in charge from now.

As the group walked back in to Phandalin around midday they could see the redevelopment had progressed in their absence.  A few building projects had finished and some new ones had started. Work up at the Manor still continued.   The sound of construction had always been there, but this is the longest they had been out of town so this is the first time they’ve really noticed any changes.

They headed straight to the Stonehill Inn for lunch and to work out what to do next.  Ramond ordered them all lunch and enquired after Gundren.  Toblen, the Innkeeper, said he was doing well.  He’d been sleeping a lot but looking healthier every day.  He should be up and about any day now.  He said he’s let him know they were back in town when he brings him some food.

The party discussed option.

• Let the Townmaster know that monsters were being chased towards town by the Dragon. They feared he would just panic even more and for no good.
• They still need to find this missing druid around Thundertree
• They still have the Lighthouse to investigate
• They thought the monsters chased out by the dragon may be a higher priority than the mine if Ogres etc are coming near town (DM: Ramond spent a fair chunk of the rest of the session pricing up the funding of a small militia in town and OOC  constantly complaining about the stupidity of PHB prices.  “10gp for a shield?  It’s a bit of wood!”  How much for a pointed stick???)
• They wanted to talk to Gundren for more information on the mine, to see why it might be a bigger concern. Just what kind of magic items can the Spellforge there create?  Useful dragon fighting stuff?  Siege weapons that could be used against Phandalin?
• They considered checking in with Sildhar

Talindra walked in to the inn and joined them for lunch.  She asked them where’re they’ve been and they all had a bit of a catch up.  Talinda told them all she had been to Neverwinter to sell off some of their rarer items (DM: Their captured spellbooks etc) and gave them their cut of the gold.  Talindra also handed Araloth a parcel, saying the mail had come while they were away.  It was a small box wrapped in paper, bound in string, with a red seal over the string.  Talindra apologised as she had had an accident and spilled candle wax all over the package.  It was a mess.  Half the seal wasn’t visible and wax was everywhere.  Araloth just accepted it and put off opening the package until he was alone later.

She then mentioned that she had recouped her expenses from learning new spells before splitting the profits.  Most of the group were OK with this, but Araloth disagreed.  An argument happened and Araloth is currently biting his tongue on this issue as he doesn’t see why he should have to pay towards someone else learning spells.

They ate their lunch in an awkward silence for a while until Gundren came down the stairs and joined them.  His movement looked uncomfortable, and he was using a cane, but he looked better.  He greeted the group and offered them a reward for rescuing him (DM: The module has him offer them 20gp when they first rescue him.  So where was he supposed to be hiding all those coins if he’s been a prisoner for a week or two and has been searched and tortured?  Does he jingle as he parps?)  They asked him about the mine and what it could make.  He said the Spellforge there could make any magic item.  Legend says it could be used to make enchanting items a while lot easier and simples and could theoretically be used to mass produce magic items.  In the wrong hands you could easily equip an army with magic weapons.  If they mine is in the hands of the Drow this is very worrying.  They asked what they might find there.  Gundren said he didn’t explore it much, but as its been abandoned for hundreds of years they should expect wild creatures and monsters to have moved in.  The Black Spider appears to be a dark elf with goblinoids under his control so it’s likely there will be some of them down there.  Beyond that he could only guess.  The mine entrance is only around 10 miles outside of town at the foot of the Sword Mountains, but is hidden.  Gundren and his brothers had to tunnel part of the way in.

Gundren is keen to get out there and meet up with his brothers.  They were camping about a mile away from the entrance and he wants to make sure they’re safe, and warn them about the Black Spider.  However, Gundren isn’t quite ready to travel.  He needs to heal up a little more and he has preparations to make.  He advised the party take a few days to prepare or take care of any unfinished business.  They discussed their options.  They weren’t going to find and deal with the dragon in this time, and Thundertree is at least a 6 day round trip, with more time potentially spent exploring.  They figured the Lighthouse was a day and a half away so would be a reasonable task to fill the time.  The party agreed the mine needs to be their main priority for now.  They wondered if the dragon had been drawn to the mine, or if it would want it should it find out about it.

After lunch the split up and did a little shopping, selling off loot and restocking consumables.  Talindra had an unusual request of Devere.  She said she had been studying up on a magic item that would help her and it needed a particular component, linked to a Celestial nature.  She needs some of his blood.  (DM: The party OOC went on comments about this for a while.  Jokes about demon worship, necromancy, selling of souls, possession, etc).  Talindra got out an intricately carved rod she had made from the Manticores thigh bone.  Devere was most agreeable, even when he found out it would be a pint and not a small vial needed.  They went somewhere private and Devere donated with the aid of a knife, and then Talindra healed him up after.  Talindra stored this sample in the rift up at the Manor (DM: It’s magical and cold.  It greatly slows down the decay of any organic matter within it)

Early afternoon they hit the road and headed towards the coast.  They drew near the lighthouse late on the next day.  A storm was brewing out at sea. They chose to camp before entering, rather than head in with the sun starting to go down.  Overnight the storm drew closer and hung heavy over them.  They could hear the rumble of thunder in the clouds overhead, and while it started to rain, the storm didn’t kick in.  Overnight, they got a close up view of the light from the lighthouse.  It appeared to have a green tinge to it, easy to miss or dismiss at a distance, but much more apparent now.  They woke up the next morning with the clouds hanging dark and threatening in the sky above them and headed towards the cliffs.

Below the high cliff that hugged the coastline, an outcropping of rock was nearly surrounded by water, with only a narrow causeway connecting it to the beach below. Atop this outcropping was a stone building surmounted by a lighthouse tower. An eerie green light pulsed from its beacon, shining westward out to sea. With each green pulse of light, they could hear the thump of a slow-beating heart.  They could see a giant crab on the shore far below them.

As they walked down the narrow stairs to the beech the crab approached them, claws waiving in the air overhead.  As people were debating Calm Animal and Speak With Animal spells, it greeted them in Common and asked what they were up to.  They said there was a problem with the lighthouse and they’d come to investigate.  The crab agreed there were problems.  He introduced himself as Mur’raih and the party introduced themselves.  Devere asked if giant crabs usually talk. Mur’raih said he was special.  He had a friend who gave him the ability to talk; a clever Sea Elf named Miraal.  He asked if they could help Miraal if they were already heading in to the lighthouse anyway.  She used to live near here, until she was killed recently by the Half Orc that has taken over the lighthouse.  She’s become a restless spirit ever since and haunts the cave on the way to the lighthouse.  She’s become much angrier and scarier since.  It’s warping her spirit and changing her.  Mur’raih asked the party to help her find peace.  In exchange he would go down to one of the shipwrecks and fetch them a bit of treasure.  They shouldn’t go diving down there themselves.  There’s sharks.  One mean shark in particular called Daggermaw enjoys making people suffer when she eats them slowly.  Talindra said it was a good deal and they shook hands/claws.  Mur’raih pointed them towards his mistress’s cave and they headed off.  As they left, he shouted out a warning about Harpies nesting up by the lighthouse and they should watch out for their beguiling songs.

Talindra and Ramond went to talk to the Banshee Miraal.  As they entered the narrow cave on the tight outcropping a ghostly female elven spirit drifted out of the rocks, her hair seemingly drifting on watery currents they could not see.  Talindra called out, “Miraal, is that you?”  “I am Miraal.  Have you come here to do more harm?”  Talindra said they had come to deal with whatever at the lighthouse has been causing ships to crash.  She said they had come to kill him then.  The man who had killed her.  Please go in there and fetch back my treasure.  He took it from me when he killed me.  My opalescent conch shell.  It’s not much, but its precious to me.  His name is Moeska.  He’s a half orc.  Talindra said they had spoken to Mur’raih and already agreed to help her so they would do their best.  She let them past and drifted off back in to the rocks.

The beckoned up the others and had a discussion about how to resist the harpy songs.  They discussed the pros and cons of a Silence spell, but opted for Ramond to cast Bless on Araloth, Carson and Bilba and let the others rely on saves and elven resistances to Charms while they spend a few rounds running up the walkway.

 It was getting late and doing anything would have triggered a time consuming encounter so e called it there for the week.

With bless cast on Araloth, Karson and Bilba the party moved quickly across the narrow causeway, hoping to get past the Harpies before it ran out.  As they headed out the Harpies on the southern platform soon noticed them and started to sing, entrancing some of them.  Araloth and Bilba were able to put a couple of shots in to the one that could be seen while everyone else tried to advance.  Ramond, Talindra, and Melandrach were charmed and tried a few times to climb the cliffs, with a lot of slips and falls.  Araloth focused on running up the path as fast as possible and made it to the tower ahead of everyone.  Thorivor was charmed at first but quickly resisted and put a couple of seeking arrows in to the wounded harpy who had retreated out of sight, killing it.  Melandrach made the climb as he reached the wall around the harpy nests and two harpies advanced to attack him.  He tried to skirt around the Harpies before vaulting the wall, but lost his grip and fell back down, narrowly missing the climbing Talindra.  He picked himself up, dusted himself of, and ran up the path, overtaking Devere.  Araloth pushed up the front door and found himself in a large empty foyer and just ran for the door in the direction of the Harpies.  He rushed straight through a room with an altar and frescoes on the walls, not stopping to look around, busting open the next door.  Stopping in the doorway he attacked the closet Harpy before retreating through the door.  Ramond channelled his divinity to turn himself in to a Peerless Athlete and then ran up the steep incline, no longer charmed.  Talindra had finally made her save so cast Shatter at the Harpies, killing another and wounding the third, before heading along the winding path.  Melandrach made it up the path and entered the Lighthouse just as the final Harpy decided this was too much and flew around behind the tower out of sight.  Araloth ran outside and saw the Harpy was gone and shouted out to the group.  He then began searching the nests.  Devere entered the building and ran towards where he had last seen the Harpies.  Meanwhile, Melandrach entered the altar room and looked out the window.  He could see the harpy so opened the window and tried to fire his bow at it, but missed.  The Harpy just flew further out to sea as fast as she could.

With the fight over for now Devere took a moment to look around the Altar room as the others came up the path.  The walls of the fifteen foot-high room were adorned with frescoes that depicted ships being tossed on stormy seas, with a dark and terrible god looming above them and smiling. Set into the west wall was a dirty, salt-encrusted window.  A stone altar with lightning bolts carved into it stood against the south wall. A metal rod descended from the ceiling above the altar, splitting in two before it embedded itself into the stone altar.  Devere tried to search the altar, but got a short sharp shock from it and then he heard a pronounced silence as a dull humming noise stopped that he didn’t even realise he had been hearing.  He said he felt a bit funny.  Melandrach turned to look at him and the occasional small spark of electricity could be seen sparking around his eyes.  Karson stood guard over the other doors in the foyer.  Having finished the climb and seen the bodies, Ramond ran through the room towards the foyer.  As the group started to gather around the lighthouse Araloth ran through and opened the double doors in the foyer, revealing a spiral staircase and another ground level door, which he immediately opened.

This 15 -foot-high room has two north-facing windows. A barnacle-encrusted chair stands against the south wall. Sitting in the chair is the Half-Orc Moesko, clad in Splint Mail armour made from metal plates over reddish-purple giant octopus hide. Resting in his lap is an opalescent conch he took from Miraal the sea elf.  Either side of the door stands two Half-Orc guards, wearing hide.  They all have unusual clawed gauntlets on.  They are styled after boars and the rusks come out in to sharp blades which could be used as weapons.  He shouted out what he had seen and then retreated to the foyer.

Karson ran through and landed a couple of blows on a guard.  Devere stepped in to the stairwell and Guiding Bolted the same guard before backing up.  Ramond moved in between the guards and Smote the same one, almost killing him, allowing Thorivor to finish him off.  Talindra scouted around the outside of the tower and peeked in through the window.  The surviving guard moved, chanted and cast Lightning Bolt through Ramond and Karson.  Karson survived purely because Bless was still active.  Moeska stayed sat in his seat and also chanted, casting Lightning Bolt at Ramond (DM: Both bolts rolled noticeable above average.  It was getting scary in there.  Ramond was on 1hp at this stage.  A full Bolt could perma-kill him at this stage).  Melandrach stepped over the guard’s corpse and flurried radiant sun bolts at the other guard while hurling insults at him. Bilba put an arrow in the guard while hiding at the back.  Araloth ran in to flank the guard with Ramond and stabbed him up.  Karson moved in and also cut him.

Having seen the lighting flying from a distance, Devere came to an understanding.  He moved in to the room and without casting a spell, fired a Lightning Bolt from his hands at Moeska.  Ramond took this opportunity to touch himself with a Lay on Hands. (DM: There were a lot of jokes about how the cleric never does any healing and the Paladin is the only one casting classic cleric spells).  Thorivor finished off the guard as Talindra peeked through the window and cast Shatter at Moeska, avoiding his allies.  Moeska stood up from his seat, putting down the conch shell and picking up his trident.  As he walked forward he shouted out, “How dare you burst in to my throne room.  Talos shall have you!”   Without casting, he then threw a Lightning Bolt through Devere, Ramon and Melandrach who were conveniently all lined up nicely (and already OOC making jokes about their bad positioning), downing Ramond and Devere.  Melandrach moved up to apply a flurry of blows to Moeska while Bilba put an arrow in to him.  Araloth and Karson stabbed him and then Thorivor killed him with one last arrow.  The group then quickly scrambled to heal Ramond and Devere.

The party gathered together in to the throne room and searched the bodies while Taildra did a Detect magic ritual.  Araloth revealed he had found a potion in the Harpy nests.  The potion, Splint Mail, Moeska’s bracelet and a ring on his trident were magical.  Araloth tasted the potion (Water Breathing) while Talindra ritually identified the rest (Splint mail of Lightning Resistance, and the ring and bracelet are paired items that let the bracelet’s wearer call to his hand whatever weapon the ring is placed around).  Melandrach picked up the Conch shell and they couldn’t help but notice that it was exceptional.  Whatever conch had grown this had apparently been dieting on some interesting materials as it had opal material built in to it.  It would likely be worth quite a bit.  Araloth wanted to appraise it, but Melandrach and the others wouldn’t let him as they were going to give it back to the Banshee.

While all this was going on the group discussed throwing Moeska’s body out of the window, but Devere wanted to inspect it further.  When they removed its armour they noticed his heart was missing and there was a hole in his chest.  Devere was concerned this was a consequence of the charge currently still coursing through him.  Devere had no idea what he was looking at though.  Ramond took a look and came to the conclusion that ribs had been broken and healed and any other damage had had plenty of time to heal over.  He decided the heart had been carefully removed on purpose, possibly as a means of controlling them.  They left the body where it was and Ramond put on the armour and they took a short rest.

Half way through their short rest they could hear footsteps coming down the stairs.  Talindra quickly cast an illusion of the door over the closed door and everyone upped weapons and got ready to defend themselves.  Karson popped open the door and peeked through the illusion and could see a naked half orc coming down the stairs with a hole where his heart should be.  He stepped through the illusory closed door and stabbed the half orc before retreating and dodging his free strike.  Araloth did his usual drive by attack, ending up in the altar room to avoid lightning.  Devere had a look up the stairs and then backed up in to the room to inform the others and to see if the new guy looked like the dead guy, but really couldn’t tell.  Meladrach flurried him and Thorivor put an arrow through him, but he unleashed a Lightning Bolt through Melandrach and Karson, almost downing Melandrach.  Ramond beat him to within an inch of his life but Bilba landed the killing blow.

Deciding resting had proven to be an unworkable idea, the group gathered themselves and head up the stairs.  The next floor up proved to be just the open flat roof, with a lightning rod reaching high in the sky above the altar room.  Further up the stairs, the pinnacle of the lighthouse beacon was partly open to the elements and surrounded by a narrow walkway topped by an iron railing. Three open archways allowed the beacon’s pulsating green light to spill westward over the sea. This light was so bright that it hurt the eyes of anyone trying to look at it.  While they couldn’t look directly at the source of the light, they noticed it looked like a heart, but ten times larger than usual and it was just floating in the air.  Araloth tried to search it for traps, but with the light in his eyes he wasn’t able to find anything with his disadvantaged check.  Talindra tried to see if she had any understanding of the magic at play here but came up blank.  While Talindra cast Sacred Flame at the heart, Araloth fished through his bag and threw a coat over the heart to partially mask the light.  Now they could look more at it Talindra cast Eldritch Blast at it.  It rattled and shook, crumpled in on itself and then dropped to the floor.  Araloth picked up his coat and the large heart was now like a shrivelled up blackened walnut on the floor.  Araloth poked it with his sword a little to no effect.  There was some talk about relighting the lighthouse at around 10.30am and about getting someone to man the lighthouse (The banshee?  The crab?  Someone from town?) but they let it drop for now and went to return the shell.

The banshee Miraal drifted out of the rocks as they approached and asked if they were done and had her shell.  They offered it up to her and she took it gratefully, visibly calming as she did.  They asked if she knew anything about Moeska missing his heart or what was going on up there.  She was none the wiser.  She thanked them and slowly faded away.  As she vanished, the conch shell dropped to the floor and the quickly scooped it up to sell later.

They then headed over to Mur’raih the Giant Crab and told him his mistress was at rest.  He had a quick look for her and then said he’d go and get them a piece of treasure from the sunken ships.  They asked if he could check the rest, but he said that if anyone hangs around the ships for too long the sharks come for them and he didn’t want to get eaten.  While he was away they discussed drinking the potion of water breathing and going themselves, but decided to leave that for another day when they could send more than one person to face the sharks.  When Mur’raih returned he was carrying a cutlass in its belted scabbard, with a small pouch still attached to the belt.  They thanked him and said their goodbyes and headed back towards town.  While sat on their wagon Talindra identified the new weapon and pulled 3 small diamonds from the pouch.

Split Armour of Lightning Resistance

Rare, Requires attunement

This split mail is made of rows of blackened metal plates attached to an unusual mottled reddish purple leather, apparently made out of Octopus Hide.  It is both tough and rubbery.  This armour bestows resistance to Lightning damage to its wearer.

Bands of Returning

This clasped metal band and bracelet are paired magic items.  The ring is placed round the grip of a weapon and the bracelet is worn by its user.  As a bonus action the wearer can command the weapon to return to their hand, passing through the intermediate space.  If the weapon is being held or restrained, treat the weapon as having a Strength of 26 (+8) and a Dexterity of 10 (+0) for the purposes of any checks.

The band can be attached to any weapon and can be adjusted to fit.

Sea Captains Cutlass

+1 Shortsword

This fine cutlass has a pocket on its scabbard containing a matching flask.  Every day at dawn the flask refills with Rum.  The scimitar grants its wielder immunity to the effects of the poisoned condition while they are touching the hilt.  On a critical hit this weapon bestows the poisoned condition to its target who becomes drunk.  They can make a Con save DC 14 at the end of each of their activations to resist this.

On the wagon back to town Talindra started asking questions about what they had all just seen.  The converging triple lightning bolt symbols the Half-Orcs were wearing had jogged a memory loose.  She revealed that upon originally arriving in Phandalin she had been given a vision.  The shrine in town was under assault by ice and lightning.  It struck the shrine and destroyed the whole area.  She suspected these guys are related.  Ramond said he heard the heartless guy call out to Talos, who would be the angry evil god of storms and destruction.  Worship of Talos is illegal in most places.  He is not part of the main pantheon so is not as well-known as some other gods.  Araloth wondered what they were doing there.  Turning the light off so ships would crash?  Devere said the green light was probably drawing the ships on to the rocks.  Ramond said the green light wasn’t bright enough so ships couldn’t see the rocks in time.  Talindra suggested that the destruction could be an offering to Talos.  Devere was concerned that his new sparking eyes might mark him as a worshiper of Talos and that might get him arrested.  Araloth suggested he discharge himself, but he opted not to for now.  Using the Sending Stones Devere told Gundren they were on their way back and would be ready to go after lunch tomorrow.  Gundren responded, saying he would be ready but he was worried about his brothers as they had not come for a resupply, but ran out of words before he could explain.

The journey back was uneventful and when they arrived in town they went straight for a hot meal at the Stonehill Inn, where they saw Gundren already eating.  They joined him and ordered food and exchanged pleasantries.  Gundren explained he had spent the last few days getting supplies together ready for the mine.  Along the way he had been asking about and his brothers hadn’t been seen.  They should have come back to town a couple of weeks ago to resupply on the essentials but they had not.  Gundren was worried if something had happened to them as was keen to get moving to check on them.  They had been camping a short walk from the mine entrance.  The party agreed to head out after lunch and a chance to plan and shop.

While the party did some shopping (DM: Lots of private messages while people were talking.  Got a little confusing),Talindra went to speak to Townmaster Harbin Wester who once again refused to open his front door.  She told him what they had found at the lighthouse and that it needed restaffing.    He said it was managed by Neverwinter, but he would send them a letter to inform them.  Talindra also asked about any possible reward for the job, but Harbin said the town didn’t really have the money to spare for that but he was grateful for their efforts.

They spent a while shopping, arguing about money (DM: They party has decided that Araloth is a penny pincher and it’s definitely Araloth and not his player.  This is becoming a focal point for RP), and planning for the future.  Talindra has a project she wants to work on and Thorivor wants to spend some time brewing healing potions before they face the dragon.  Ramond doesn’t like just walking around town with 600gp in his pockets and wants something better to do with it.

When they were done they met up with Gundren outside the Inn.  Gundren had gathered together his own wagon filled with supplies and had hired four people to help get the mine up and running, once the party had cleared it for them.  Following Gundren’s directions they all headed east out of town and arrived at the Rockseeker campsite with around an hour of daylight left.  The place looked clear and unused.  Hunting around they found an old campfire that had been buried and covered, and a few prints.  They place didn’t looked like it had been used for a week, perhaps two.  Gundren’s plan was to camp here while the mine was being cleared but people didn’t feel safe here, knowing something may have happened to Nundro and Tharden.  Gundren didn’t know if they had abandoned the camp for some reason, or if the Black Spider had found them.  They hunted around and found a suitable new site nearby.

While everyone set up the new camp, Karson, Bilba and Araloth had Gundren lead them to the mines entrance to scout it out.  Ten-ish minutes later he pointed them to a gap in some rocks hidden from the surrounding area by the terrain.  The gap was just about big enough for a person to squeeze through and had evidence of being man made.  Gundren said he had dug through the rock here to reach a natural tunnel shortly behind it that leads directly to the mine.  They looked around while never entering and found old footprints that looked around two week sold entering but not leaving the cave.  They retreated a safe distance and watched the area for 20 minutes but didn’t see anything of interest.  Karson hid a bear trap by the entrance and they went back to camp and everyone got a good night’s rest.

The next morning they left Gundren and his miners behind and returned to the cave entrance.  The bear trap remained set so Karson disarmed it with a long stick and put it back in his bag.  Bilba and Ramond had Light spells cast on a stone for each of them and they all squeezed in to the cave one by one.  The cave soon opened up in to a wider tunnel and Talindra summoned her owl familiar and sent him ahead to scout revealing a room ahead.  The entrance tunnel lead into a large-cavern supported by a natural pillar of rock and containing three stalagmites. In the western part of the cave, behind the column of rock, were two bedrolls and a heap of ordinary supplies-sacks of flour, bags of salt, casks of salted meat, lanterns, flasks of lamp oil, pickaxes, shovels, and other gear. Amid the supplies, the body of a dwarf miner could be seen, dead for at least a week. The north-eastern section of the cavern had collapsed, forming a ten-foot-wide, twenty-foot-deep pit. A sturdy hemp rope was tied off around a nearby stalagmite and dangled down the side of the pit, at the bottom of which was a rough-hewn tunnel heading northwest and east.

Araloth went to check out the rope and the trench.  The rope looked securely tied around a stalagmite with nothing at its other end and no one could be seen in the trench.  Araloth stood guard while the others explored the chamber.  Devere inspected the corpse for time and cause of death and found some old bruises and a few cuts, but the final would appeared to be a series of around 5 small sharp bruises in a grouping to centre mass, like someone had repeatedly poked him to death with a stick.  Araloth said this looked like it was done by a person and not an animal.  Melandrach said it sounded like Magic Missile.  They had been blasted with Magic Missile before and it did match their old wounds.  Upon close inspection Meladrach said that this was Tharden’s body.  He had met Nundro and Tharden before and was the only one in the group who had (DM: backstories finally being relevant and looked at!  Yay!  It did take a prompt from me for everyone to check though).  Devere finished searching Tharden and concluded that someone else had already stripped him of everything of interest, but that his boots looked unusually clean, new and high quality and didn’t match the wear on the rest of his outfit, so they took them.

After checking the crates (Just mining and camping supplies) they descended the rope in to the trench, except for Melandrach who showed off by jumping safely down the 20 foot drop (DM: Bloody Monks!).  Talindra sent her owl for a quick scout through both exits, revealing something of a maze to the north west and some branching tunnels with a distant light at the far end to the east.  They had a discussion about which way to go and chose to head towards the light as that might be a sign of a surviving dwarf.  Bilba and Ramond shielded their lights.  Araloth and Karson went ahead to scout while the others gathered ready to react.  As the paths forked they split up, while staying nearby and the party advanced up behind them.  Araloth found his pathway widening to become a larger chamber.  Many tunnels intersected at this natural, thirty-foot-high cavern.  The walls were carved with simple reliefs showing dwarf and gnome miners hard at work. Below them, nearly two dozen skeletons in rusted scraps of armour were scattered across the cavern floor. Some were dwarf skeletons, while others were orc remains. Half a dozen large brass lanterns stood in niches or on ledges around the cavern, but none were lit.  Araloth went to see if there was any oil in the lanterns, but anything that had been there had long since dried up.  While he was doing this the sound of flapping and chirruping could be heard from above as ten flying insects dropped off the ceiling and came to attack him.

He stabbed the nearest and ran back to the group as arrows flew over him and Devere Blessed his allies.  Karson moved in to attack another as the Stirges flew in to the front lines and attached themselves to Araloth and Melandrach, drinking their blood.  Talindra stepped forward and unleashed a Shattering wave in the midst of the bugs, hurting his allies, but killing all the bugs.  With Bless active, the party decided to get productive and explored to the east, revealing a glowing cavern.  Dense carpets of weird fungi covered large sections of the floor in this cavern. The growth included puffballs a foot across, weird shelf fungus grown on stalagmites, and large stalks and caps a good five feet tall. Some of the puffballs glowed with an eerie green phosphorescence.  They turned around to explore the last corridor behind them in the hopes of preventing any surprises creeping up on them later.

Melandrach listened to the eastern door, but heard nothing from within.  While he had his ear pressed up against the door, he felt more than heard a sound.  A single low deep thrum and tremble, like a large heavy pounding sound a long way off, carried through the rock.  Araloth listened at the other door but heard nothing.  Araloth opened his door and revealed splintered stone benches and heaps of rubble from a partially collapsed ceiling filling this room. Amid ruined stone bunks and toppled weapon racks were the bones of several dwarves and orcs.  Melandrach opened his door.  This chamber was once an office or storeroom of some kind. A large stone counter bisected the room, set with three dusty balance scales made of iron. Cubbyholes carved into the north wall were stuffed with dusty paper scraps. Several long dead corpses – gnomes and orcs by their look – were sprawled across the floor.

As the group discussed the possibility of using these rooms for resting later and Ramond said they should fully search these rooms now rather than later as they should never plan on returning anywhere, Araloth and Devere entered the west room to look around.  As the group continued talking the bodies on the floor surrounding him pulled themselves together and the dead rose around them and nine skeletons attacked!  Two rounds of combat later the skeletons were dead and Melandrach had needed a heal spell.  They searched the room and found nothing of interest.  Expecting the same in the other room, they moved over and prepared for an attack, but nothing happened.  Araloth went to the cubby holes and started looking at papers.  They crumbled at his touch so he tried to read some where they sat.  The ink was faded to almost nothing, but he could make out some dwarven writing.  This looked like records of weigh-ins and disbursements from the mine.  Ramond checked behind the counter and found a rusted but study lockbox.  Araloth gave it his all but couldn’t pick the lock.  Bilba gave it a try and almost had it, but failed.  Talindra saw no harm in trying and effortlessly popped the lock to find it stuffed with coin.

By this time a few people were interested in a short rest as spells were running low and some needed healing.  They also wanted to Identify those boots they thought would be magic.  Talindra identified them (DM: Boots of Striding and Springing, which Bilba put on) and they had a rest while the Owl kept an eye out at the junction. As they sat around resting they all slowly noticed a tremor through the ground.  A short shake.   A dull thud only felt at first, but once they knew it was there they could just about here it.  About once every two minutes a single quake happened, like something heavy but far away.

DM: It was about 11pm on a Sunday so we called it there as any encounter could go on for a long while.  They are maybe two hours in to their adventuring day and on the final stage of the first major story arc at last!

DM: One of my players gifted me a year’s subscription to Roll20 so I spent a few hours adding dynamic lighting to the mine.  It worked well when it was just me running around, but once all the players logged in it ran so slow and sluggish and we gave up and switched back to the non dynamic version.  Anyone have any experience with this and knows what the issue is?  Is it just a thing where the more players it has to light for the exponentially slower it gets (There were 8 accounts logged in)?  Is the issue server/software side, or can one player having issues slow it down for the rest?

With their short rest over, the party headed out (DM: They were heading east last week and talking about heading further east, so I did my prep assuming they would keep heading east.  Guess where they went?  North West!) to the door to their immediate north.  They said they wanted to explore the worked stone areas and not the raw stone as the raw was most likely mine shafts and the living areas most likely contained more immediate threats.  Karson listened at the door and could hear some gnawing and scratching noises.  The party readied for a fight, kicked in the door and made short work of 4 emaciated Ghouls sucking what marrow they could from the bones of a skeleton in the middle of the room.  Karson listened at the next door and didn’t hear anything at first, but could hear the clank of heavy armour approaching, so they opened the door and sent out Ramond with sword and board to encounter any threat there.  He saw Devere who had got bored and gone the long way around while they were looting and listening.  Ramond gave him a stern telling off about ignoring party tactics and plans, and endangering everyone.  Devere went back with his head hung low.

Karson and Araloth went out scouting to the west, with the group staying just far enough behind them to keep in line of sight.  This section appeared to be a mass of interconnected corridors forming something of a simple maze.  They’d scoot forward 30 foot, with Karson in the lead and Araloth 10 foot behind him, and the rest keeping Araloth at the edges of their light/darkvision.  When Karson was 90ish feet down the corridor he turned around as he could hear angry scrams and the sounds of bare flesh slapping on stone behind him.  He could see the group bracing themselves against a charge from a large number of Ghouls coming down some stairs.  Seems that while the scouts could not see what was up the stairs, the ghouls could see the passing light from the party and wanted lunch.  The corridors created a bottleneck for the ghouls that the party had already filled meaning that only three ghouls at a time could engage the party, but there were a lot of them.  They ended up using a few AoE powers to burn them down so they kept the situation under control and the fight was over after three rounds.  They chose not to explore up the stairs for the moment, opting to stick to one level at a time.

They scouted through most of the mini maze and followed the corridors north through an unworked section to discover a still pool filling much of a cavern. The water was dark, revealing little of what might lie within. The shore of the pool consisted of a thin layer of broken shells from strange, pale mussels, and a fishy odour hung in the air. A set of steps climbed up to the east and a sluggish stream flowed out of the cave to the northeast through a low tunnel through the wall.  Karson slowly edged in to this room, staying cautiously away from the waters, afraid of what might lurk within.  They remembered an undead beholder rising out of the last dirty body of water they saw.  As he explored he remained unmolested so the group advanced up and headed towards the stairs.  Talindra had her owl familiar explore the watery tunnel.  There was only a 3 foot gap between the water and its roof so Nezhar wasn’t happy about this so she wouldn’t really go in there and Talindra didn’t force the issue.  She could see that the tunnel opened up after about 10 feet and the stream curved around out of sight to the east shortly after.

At the top of the stairs the corridor went north but there was a more interesting door immediately in front of them which they chose to investigate.  Karson listened closely and could hear some grumbles in what sounded like deep voiced goblinoid, although he couldn’t make out what they were saying through the door.  They lined up in formation and opened the door.  Old stone bunks lined the walls of this barracks, which was lit and heated by a glowing iron brazier in the middle of the room.   Across the room was another door, this one blocked by a barricade made from the remains of a wooden table.  Five Bugbears were sat around and surprised by the intrusion.  As the party ran in to engage Ramond shouted out, “Why on earth to they need a barricade?”  The bugbears were wearing good armour and their Morningstar’s hit hard so Devere put up a Bless spell.    Devere lined up with two Bugbears and unleashed his second Lightning Bolt from whatever power had entered him at the Lighthouse, hurting but not killing them (DM: I rolled nat 20 for both their saves!).  It was a slow and hard fight, with the Bugbears dealing their share of the damage and some poor rolls early on from the party, but they prevailed after a few rounds.

They looted the room, took stock of their wounds and did some healing, and decided the barricade should stay in place for now while they explored elsewhere.  They didn’t know if whatever was threatening the Bugbears would threaten them, or become an ally.  Having run in to a “dead end” (DM: And it getting late enough that they didn’t want to get locked in to a long encounter) they decided now was a good time to do a more thorough search of the areas they had passed through.  Talindra ritually cast Detect magic and did a run around with the group.  Something in the lake caught her eye.  She summoned an Unseen Servant and commanded it to bring up anything it could find while pointing towards the glow.  Over many trips it brought back shells, bones, shells, two platinum rings, stones, shells, more bones, stones, a magic wand, shells, stones, some muck, stones, stones, bones, stones, and Talindra dismissed her servant.

They went back in to the Bugbear Barracks and discussed having a short rest and taking the time to ritually identify the wand.  Araloth went up the northern corridor to stealthily peek around for any threats.  To the east of the end he could see a Bugbear and a Drow with their backs to him, with the sounds of stones being shifted within a crevasse in front of them.  He carefully retreated and informed the party.  They took their chances on a ritual identify but opted against a short rest at this time.  It was a Wand of Magic Missiles.  After a short discussion it was agreed that Ramond the Paladin should have it for all those annoying times when he finds himself spending 2+ rounds just running close enough to hit things with his sword.  He felt a little bad as he is already covered in magic items, but this does seem like the best use of the item.

Throughout all of this exploration they slowly noticed that as they head north, the regular tremors were getting slowly louder.  They could hear and feel them a little more, once every two minutes.

DM: We called it a night here.  It was approaching 11pm at this point and one of our players has an early start and two more had their internet go out.

DM: Dynamic lighting.  I’d spent the week trying things to get it working and thanks to some pointers from another DM using Roll20 we got it up and running well enough to use for the first time.  By the end of the session we’d had a human player without a light source in complete darkness for a few hours and they’d have a miserable time.  They couldn’t plan their turns, or even tell what everyone else was talking about during their turns.  They called it “the worst radio play ever”.  I didn’t understand how bad they had it until after we’d called the session. This cannot be allowed to happen again.  I’m either ditching Dynamic Lighting or dropping an OOC light source in to fights so everyone can watch and I can remove to determine IC sight when it matters.

After Talindra was done exploring and identifying they sat around in the Bugbear barracks for another half hour so the others could complete a short rest before heading out to deal with the enemies that Araloth had scouted out at the end of last session.  The quietly made their way down the corridor with the archers up front with the plan that the archers would focus fire the Drow down and Karson would tank the Bugbear.  As they were getting in to position, they heard the Bugbear say he had heard something and peaking around the corner they could see he and the Drow had turned their way.

Karson ran around the corner and killed the bugbear in one round.  Bilba stepped out, rolled her Light stone down the stairs and Crit shot the Drow as two more bugbears climbed up out of the trench, drew weapons and moved towards Karson.  The Drow fired his crossbow at Bilba, poisoning her before he backed up over the stream.  Devere ran to engage the Drow while Melandrach Sun Bolted him.  Thorivor shot the Drow with a Grasping Arrow (Damage if he tries to move) and Talindra followed that up with a Hexed Eldritch Blast as Ramond ran full pelt to engage him.  Araloth missed his attack on the Drow while Karson beat up the closest Bugbear.  The two bugbears beat in to Karson while the Drow disengaged from the surrounding enemies, taking Grasping Arrow damage as a result, but not quite making it to cover.  Devere overtook the Drow and hit him with his mace and Melandrach finished the job.  The eight of them then made short work of the two Bugbears who had nowhere to run before looting the corpses.

They took everyone’s weapons and armour and put it in the Bag of Holding and discovered that the Drow was actually another Doppelganger.  Araloth dropped in to the canyon and had a look around where the Bugbears had been digging.  It looked like they had been at it for a while.  He removed a few rocks quickly and discovered nothing more interesting than a bone before deciding to leave this for now.  Ramond healed Bilba’s poison by Laying on Hands.

They noticed that the tunnel behind them and the pathways the Drow was heading towards were both filled with more cobwebs than the rest of the mine and possibly connected.  They split the party in two and headed down both pathways at once, coordinating via Talindra’s Sending cantrip.  Devere passed by a side door he listed and could hear laboured breathing behind, although he chose to ignore it for now.  Karson, Devere and Melandrach took the northern corridor and everyone else took the southern pathway.  When they were in position Araloth opened one of the double doors and took two crossbow bolts to the chest from readied actions.  The first poisoned him and knocked him out, but the second woke him back up again.  Before he went down he saw

Six cracked marble pillars lining the walls of this hall, at the north end of which stood a nine-foot-tall statue of a dwarf seated on a throne, a mighty stone warhammer across his lap. Large emeralds gleamed in the statue’s eyes.  The dust and debris covering the floor had been swept to one side, and a campsite of sorts spread in front of the statue. Half a dozen bedrolls and packs were neatly arranged around a rough-built fire pit. A wooden table stood on the west side of the room between two pillars.  A spider could be seen behind the far pillar, failing to hide.  Gathered in that corner were two bugbears with Morningstars’ drawn, and a Drow with a hand crossbow.  A second Drow with a hand crossbow could be seen on the other side of the statue, stood upside down on the ceiling.  Everyone was ready and waiting for the intruders.  A disembodies voice could be heard, “It seems that I must deal with you myself. A pity it must end this way.”

(DM: Bear with me.  This is a loooong fight and as I type this, it’s still not over)

Thorivor stepped up, shot the grounded Drow twice and backed away, narrowly dodging a bolt from the Drow on the ceiling.  Ramond ran in to the room, pointed his Wand of Magic Milles and fired 6 charges at the same Drow, hitting it with 8 missiles, nearly killing it.  Talindra fired an Eldritch Blast at him, but it went wide.  One bugbear double moved towards each group, engaging Karson and Ramond, as the damaged Drow ran for cover behind the table and missed a shot at Ramond.  The disembodied voice spoke up again, “We don’t have to be enemies you know.  Work for me and we can share the spoils of the mine.  You know what the Spellforge can do.  It can be ours.”  The visible spider moved forward and spat some webbing at Ramond, restraining him where he stood.  Another spider appeared from behind the central western pillar, moved forward and spat web all over Melandrach.  Araloth picked himself up off the floor and moved to flank Ramond’s Bugbear, landing a blow in its back, before retreating to behind a pillar.  Bilba moved up and hid behind Ramond, and shot his target.  Devere Blessed himself, Ramond, Melandrach and Karson and moved to flank with Karson.  Karson Hunters Marked and attacked the flanked Bugbear as Melandrach tore himself free of the webbing and moved forward.

The Drow on the ceiling began to chant and the area around the southern doorway was plunged in to magical darkness, dispelling their only two sources of light before backing up behind the corner pillar (DM: And pooping on the enjoyment of the HUMAN paladin player for the rest of the session.  The Halfling shares a screen with Karson, who has Darkvision so it’s less of an issue there).  Despite being trapped with the darkness, Thorivor was able to fire off a Seeking Arrow and almost finish off the damaged Drow.  Ramond Tore the webbing off himself and stepped to the side while Talinda waded across the darkness and Eldritch Blasted the damaged Drow to death and Hexed the guy on the ceiling and stepped back in to the darkness (DM: They quickly worked out how to use the Darkness to their advantage) .  Karsons bugbear smacked him hard with its Morningstar while the other backed out of the Darkness and hit Araloth.  The voice could be heard again, “You work for that dwarf, don’t you?  He’s got no greater claim on this abandoned mine than I do.  I found it first.  I have salvage rights to this place.”  Lightning fired along the eastern wall of the room, electrifying Devere and Melandrach, and then a new Drow could be seen in the corner, wearing black clothing and holding a black staff with a spider crafted on it top.  The spiders stepped up and bit at Devere, and downed Melandrach.  A third spider appeared from behind the pillar over Araloth and missed an attack against him.  Araloth missed two attacks against his Bugbear before hiding back in the Darkness.  Bilba rested one hand on the wall and followed it around in to the room.  The only thing she could see was The Black Spider (The new Drow) illuminated by the fire pit.  She gave it her all and critted him badly.  Devere healed Melandrach and channelled his divinity to restore a spell slot while Karson and Melandrach beat up their Bugbear.

The ceiling Drow hit Devere with a poisoned bolt, but he resisted as Thorivor stepped out and back in to the Darkness and piercing the Black Spider with an arrow.  Ramoned channelled divinity to restore a spell slot and ran out of the Darkness towards the fire, drew his shield and engaged The Black Spider.  Talindra supported this by Eldritch blasting him before backing in to the darkness again.  One bugbear missed Karson and the other moved up around the Darkness.  The Black Spider looked shaken and bloody, mumbled a few words and vanished from sight.  The three spiders made their attacks and a fourth appeared from behind the central eastern pillar, spitting web at and missing Bilba.  Araloth got his Second Wind (healing for 11), kicked open the second of the double doors, and moved and stabbed the spider that was behind Bilba.  Bilba drew her sword and stabbed at the same spider before disengaging in to the Darkness.  Devere channelled the storm within and fired a lightning bolt through two spiders to where The Black Spider had last been seen.  This killed one spider and badly burning the other, and then he summoned a Spiritual Weapon to attack the closest Bugbear, which Karson then finished off before backing up for safety.  Melandrach then unleashed a flurry of blows on the closest spider, who survived.

The upside down Drow ended his Darkness spell and moved south to the next pillar and missing a shot at Thorivor.  Thorivor recovered one of his magical shots and fired a Seeking Arrow at the vanished Black Spider, hurting him badly and revealing him to be invisible and about 5 foot north of Melandrach.  His target gone, Ramond turned around and missed an attack on the nearest Bugbear.  Talindra fired an Eldritch blast where the arrow had hit, but it didn’t connect with anything.  The last Bugbear hit Ramond and the spiders attacked their nearest targets.  Araloth missed both attacks against his spider and then followed the wall out of the room.  As he hit the door he bumped in to something invisible and shouted to the group to alert them that he’d found their target.  In complete darkness, guided purely by Araloth’s voice Bilba aimed (While essentially blind???) a shot at the invisible Black Spider and a moment later his invisible corpse slumped in to Araloth before fading back in to site.  Devere and his spiritual weapon ganged up on the nearest spider while Karson drank a healing potion and advanced.  Melandrach killed his spider and moved over to hit the final Bugbear.

DM: We called the session there.  Midnight was aproaching and even then we discussed the lighting issues until near 1am.  The Black Spider is dead, and they’ve killed some of the trash.  Most of whats left is almost dead, but the party are out of resources and low on health.  They should be able to outlast whats left, but dice happen and Ceiling Drow is still on full health and out of reach of melee attacks.

So the dynamic lighting worked well, in terms of little to no lag and walking down corridors was cool.  However, this fight highlighted how lack of LoS, or losing your light source could make the game incredibly boring and frustrating.  Here are two pics of the same situation taken at the same time from two different points of view.  Ramond tells me that most of the session was spent with a cview like this, which he took in good spirits for most of the game but was understandably frustrated after four hours of play.  I’m not going to let this happen again.  I wish I’d been fully aware of this sooner as I’d have fixed the issue even if it meant ditching the Dynamic Lighting completely.  As I could not see his view I didn’t understand how little he could see and how detatched he felt from events.

My current plan of things to test before next session is:

1: I drop a bright OOC light source in the room any time theres a fight going on and we can move it out of the way briefly when we want to tell who can see what IC

2: Try “Daylight mode” in Roll20. Not sure what this does yet but I’m thinking it provides illumination everywhere at all times, but still allows for walls to block LoS. I need to play with this feature to see how it works, and if I can turn it off and on mid-session without dumping load times on everyone or creating other issues

3: If those options don’t seem to work or any one player doesn’t want to deal with Dynamic Lighting again then I switch back to the old reliable manual FoW system

The party made short work of the rest of The Black Spiders minions with the exception of the Drow crossbowman on the ceiling.  As his allies were killed off and Ramond was shouting out for a light source, he ran across the ceiling, down the wall and out through the southern doorway.  Continuing along the ceiling he ran down the corridors heading south along the western edge of the mine.  The party gave chase as best they could.  The Drow was double moving and they were trying to run and shoot so he was mostly outpacing them.  The melee characters decided it was their job to carry a lantern and double move so the archers could still see him from a distance.  The rogues seemed to be able to double move and still take a shot, but quite often Bilba ran forwards in to darkness and readied a shot until someone else brought some light up.  They’d chip away at him and then he’d run a little further and the gap would grow.  As he was about to move out of the lake room and potentially turn a corner breaking line of sight forever, Bilba was able to get the final shot in to him.

His corpse clung to the ceiling for a round or two as people continued to shoot at him and then he dropped.  They grabbed the body and went back to the Black Spiders room and searched everything while Talindra ritually cast Detect magic.  By the time they were done they’d found a magic spear, magic slippers, a magic staff with a spider sculpted on its tip, and what they’re assuming is a healing potion (DM: See below for stats).  They also found some money and a hand drawn map of the cavern showing only what they’d already explored, but with two written notes.

One note was on the fungal cavern, saying, “Dangerous spores?  Avoid?”.  The other was on the other side of the barricade and said, “Dangerous undead.  Flying skull.”  As the room was being looted Devere’s attention was drawn to the giant statue of a dwarf with emeralds for eyes at the back of the room.  Having seen a similar trap before he got super cautions and checked the statue thoroughly for traps.  It appeared there was an in built structural weakness and that the emeralds supported a small but important amount of weight and if they were removed it could trigger a chain reaction.  While he was up there he realised the emeralds looked off.  He called over Araloth who confirmed his suspicions.  They were just coloured glass and not worth the trouble.

Karson investigated the side room and found a battered dwarf tied up and unconscious.  He lit a brazier and untied him and let him come to on his own.  The dwarf looked scared and started to scooch away from Karson, who offered him some Goodberries and tried to be reassuring.  He eventually took some and relaxed and they had a chat.  The dwarf was Nundro Rockseeker, Gundrens other brother.  They updated each other on what they knew and Karson offered to escort him to safety.  Nundro asked for a spare weapon just in case and took a morningstar and shield from a dead bugbear, but couldn’t face putting on armour over his beaten and sore body.

Talindra had a quick look in Nundros room and down at the dig site for anything that might show up to his Detect Magic and didn’t immediately spot anything. The group discussed digging up whatever the bugbears had been looking for.  Nundro said he’s heard Nezznar (The black Spider) say he’d divined that some magic was buried there but didn’t know any more.  Devere, Araloth and Talindra were tempted to dig further, but Ramond pointed out this was unwise right now and anything buried would likely still be there after a nights rest.

The group carefully left the mine and headed back to camp.  As they got a few minutes away from the campsite Devere heard Gundrens voice in his head, “Hello?  We need a little help here!  Ah!  Go away!  Get off me!  There’s some…leave me alone!  My ankle! They’re in the camp.  We’re under…”  He informed the party and they picked up the pace.  As they drew near they ran in to one of Gundrens hired miners, Turval Heruca, running the other way.  He said Owlbears were attacking the camp and he’d run for his life.  The others were in danger.  They drew weapons and advanced and quickly saw the camp.  One Owlbear was on its hind legs swiping up a tree.  In the tree was another miner (Selwart Peters) throwing sticks and pinecones at the Owlbear while shouting at it to go away.  The other Owlbear was walking through the camp, clipping tents with its rear and sniffing at a cooking fire.

With no one in immediate danger the party held back, behind some tent sand the wagons.  Devere made the ground shake a little while Talindra replicated the sound of the dragons roar overhead.  They stopped what they were doing and looked up and around.  The tree Owlbear gave up on his quarry and headed to the other campfire, ignoring further thrown sticks.  Devere created the sound of thunder as the other Owlbear started trying to pull dinner of the campfire without burning itself.  The party started firing warning shot at the Owlbears or running in trying to look big and menacing and eventually chased them off, only losing one of the two campfires worth of food.

Gundren and Nundro were reunited and had a catch up and everyone rebuilt and repaired the tents.  Talindra identified their magic items and they discussed plans for the next day.  They check if Gundren and Nundro had any further information about what was in the mine and discovered that Nezznar hadn’t found the Spellforge yet as some undead were in his way.  Nundro didn’t know more than that.

The next morning they got up and went to back the mine and had a long chat about who would carry what light source and ensured backups were to hand and went back in to the darkness.

DM: We called it there.  It was getting late and any encounter would have us ending very late

Loot:

Serpent Spear

+1 spear, Uncommon

Simple Melee

1d6 + 1 piercing, Thrown (range 20/60), versatile (1d8+1)

This simple bronze spear will turn in to a snake at its bearers request and wind itself around their arm.  Upon command it will slither in to their grip and turn in to a spear.  Once per short rest this spear can be commanded to turn back to a snake and attempt to grapple a large or smaller creature when it hits it.  The bearer must let go of the spear when this happens.  Once the grapple ends or fails, the spear will try to slither back to its master and up their leg to return to their arm.

Speed 30 ft., swim 30 ft. STR 15 (+2, DEX 14 (+2)

Constrict.

Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: (1d8 + 3) bludgeoning damage. The target is grappled (escape dc 15) Until this grapple ends, the creature is restrained, and the snake can’t constrict another target.

Black Spider Staff

Staff, +1

The top of this black, adamantine staff is shaped like a spider. The staff weighs 6 pounds. You must be attuned to the staff to gain its benefits and cast its spells.

The staff can be wielded as a quarterstaff. It deals 1d6 extra poison damage on a hit when used to make a weapon attack.

The staff has 10 charges, which are used to fuel the spells within it. With the staff in hand, you can use your action to cast one of the following spells from the staff if you have levels as an arcane caster: spider climb (1 charge) or web (2 charges, spell save DC 15). No components are required.

Additionally, one spell cast from this staff can be concentrated on and not prevent the caster from concentrating on another spell cast by other means.

The staff regains 1d6 + 4 expended charges each day at dusk. If you expend the staff’s last charge, roll a d20. On a 1, the staff crumbles to dust and is destroyed.

Slippers of Spider Climbing

While you wear these light shoes, you can move up, down, and across vertical surfaces and upside down along ceilings, while leaving your hands free. You have a climbing speed equal to your walking speed. However, the slippers don’t allow you to move this way on a slippery surface, such as one covered by ice or oil.

DM: Thorivor sadly couldn’t make this session and due to an easter induced unexpected napping related incident Ramond missed all the combats but arrived in time to help decide what to do after.

The party decided to begin exploring the mine today starting with the large central room they had not been to, but was revealed on The Black Spider’s map and head up towards the room labelled, “Dangerous undead!  Flying Skull”.  They headed north from the entrance towards the stairs to that room a mess of Ghouls had swarmed them from.  Scouting ahead, Karson spotted some Stirges feasting on the ghoul bodies.  Behind him, Melandrach tripped and accidentally revealed his hidden Light Stone, outlining Karson for the Stirges who looked up and chased the fresh meal.  They drank well from Karson, but with them all bunched up to eat him, Devere unleashed a cone of Burning Hands and friend them all while only mildly singing Karson.

They edged their way up the stairs in to the big room and then cautiously and slowly explored the room and came up with a plan to draw the enemy back in to a defensive position.  Everyone would form up around the top of the western stairs and the enemy would be baited to follow someone through the north eastern entrance towards them.  Archers could pelt them for a few rounds and the melee could deal with them once they got too close.  They wanted some light in the area (DM: The dynamic lighting feature already influencing everything they do.  Worth having, if you can get it to work without creating too many issues) so they broke up some of the tables for fuel and lit the two braziers in the room.  They then got in position and Karson crept in to the next room with Araloth nearby as backup, walking on the ceiling with his new Slippers of Spider Climbing (DM: Which presumably also do something to stop you suffering from all the blood rushing to your head even though that’s not mentioned).

As Karson headed up the path he became aware of a light source ahead and it appeared to be moving.  He eventually caught sight of a floating skull wrapped in green flames slowly moving about the room.  As he was considering shooting it, it disappeared behind a blast furnace.  He held his action and waiting for a clear line of sight.  When it reappeared he suddenly wondered if he was within the light of its glow and not stealthed (DM: it was close, but he was safe), and he unleashed his arrow (DM: And initiatives were rolled).  The Flameskull advanced towards where the arrow had come from and shot two Fire Rays from its eyes at the intruder, nearly killing him.  Karson ran away as fast as he could, while shouldering his bow.  Araloth shortly followed suite while shouting out a warning that the flying skull was approaching and some Zombies were following it.

The light of the Flameskull could be seen moving down the corridor but he did not reveal himself to the room.  Karson drew his swords and ran around the room looking for somewhere he could stand that was in complete darkness, but the braziers prevented this.  Devere Blessed Melandrach Ramond and Thorivor as everyone continued to hold their shots.  Then the first of the Zombies came running out of the corridor, drawing fire from Melandrach, Bilba, and Thorivor.  A surprise zombie appeared from the other entrance in to the big chamber, much closer to the party, behind Araloth and Karson.  Araloth turned around and went for him, attacking from above, stood on the wall.

The now Blurred Flameskull entered the main room and Talindra hit it with a readied Eldritch Blast, and Ramond fired his Wand of Magic Missiles at it (DM: 3 charges, leaving 1 remaining), which was countered with a Shield spell.  The Flameskull unleashed three Magic Missiles and Karson, knocking him unconscious, before retreating back up the corridor.  As the zombies approached the party pelted them with arrows, holding formation, and slowly whittling them down while Talindra healed Karson.  Devere spoke up, saying he’d noticed something behind them down the stairs.  (DM: He had a sliver of light showing him part of a token down the stairs behind them.  He couldn’t make out what the token was, but it was big.  An Ochre Jelly had been following them for a while hoping to sneak up on a lone victim at the back of the party.  At this point it thinks it is hidden, just as I thought!)  Devere then Sorching Ray’ed two zombies and the big thing behind him.  Still walking on the wall, Araloth killed his zombie, but another appeared at the top of the stairs nearby.

The light of the Flameskull faded from the far corridor.  Realising he had been spotted, the Ochre jelly advanced slowly up the stairs.  Talindra used her new staff to trap the jelly in webs, restraining it successfully, and then cast Shillelagh on her staff just in case.  Devere summoned a Spiritual Weapon to attack the jelly for the next few rounds.  Melandrach backed up and put an arrow in it too while the others continued to work on the Zombies, killing some before they could make it half way across.

The Flameskull appeared atop the stairs where Araloth was fighting and hit him with both his Fire Ray eye shots, hurting him badly, before ducking back around the corner.   Ramond threw a javelin at the Jelly and got back in formation.  Karson turned his sword in to a bird and had it attack the Jelly and block its path.  Talindra joined in, Hexing its Strength checks and Eldritch Blasting it, and Melandrach shot it then drew his Staff.  The first of the Zombies finally made it to their defensive position as the last of the Zombies revealed itself.  Araloth got his Second Wind (DM: healing) and ran up the wall, across the ceiling, and down the wall on the other side, trying to get to cover (DM: Slippers of Spider Climb means tracking full 3D movement and mapping.  This is gonna get interesting / frustrating).

The Flameskull ventured down the corridor and shot both rays at Araloth but went wide, and didn’t have time to retreat to cover.  The Jelly advanced 5 foot through the webbing, squeezing next to Talon and through the Spiritual Weapon.  Ramond stepped forward, eager for a melee opponent, and cut deep in to the Zombie in front of him.  Karson stepped down to help, but the Zombie somehow survived.  Karson retreated and dodged a free strike.  Talindra Eldritch blasted the Flameskull as Devere’s Spiritual Weapon smooshed the Jelly.  The lines met, Melandrach took his staff to the nearest zombie as others shot arrows in to the remaining nearby horde (DM: 3 left at this point).  Melandrach took a hit in retaliation.  Araloth wall walked to attack the Flameskull before retreating again.

The Flameskull advanced forward, rising as he went, and then spat out a Fireball behind the group, getting everyone except for Talindra and Araloth, even killing a zombie.  (DM: He rolled 33 damage and scared everyone badly.  They don’t know how often he can do that).  Melandrach and Karson dropped and everyone else was looking bad.  The Flameskull took what little cover it could.  Ramond smote the nearby zombie and gained some temporary hit points to keep himself alive as he tried to make himself a tempting target to the last zombie.  Talindra healed Karson and Blasted the last Zombie.  Devere ran down the stairs and healed Melandrach as Thorivor gained his Second Wind and put two arrows in to the Flameskull.  Melandrach threw a Radiant Sunbolt at the skull and ran for cover away from the others.  The last zombie fluffed its attack on Ramond.  Araloth ran along the walls around the corner to the Flameskull and sunk his blade deep in an eye socket, gained leverage on it and swung it around.  It flew off the blade, hit the wall and bounced around before landing motionless and extinguished on the floor.  Arlaoth then stood over it to ensure it didn’t get back up again while Ramond finished off the final Zombie.

With the enemies dead, the party investigated the skull and asked if anyone had any clue what it was, while Devere prepared a healing prayer circle.  Melandrach said he had read something about this a long time ago.  He told the group that they were made from dead wizards and were usually created to guard something or to complete a specific task.  They also self-resurrect after a short time, although he wasn’t sure how long it took.  They then spent 30-45 minutes (DM: in real time) discussing what to do to stop it getting back up, along with having a quick wonder round the Blast Furnace room.  Their final solution was to lock it in a room until they could make or buy some Holy Water and hope that killed it for good.  Any cleric or paladin can spend an hour and a 1^st level spell slot to turn a flask of water and 25gp of silver dust in to a flask of holy water.  If they can find some tools they can spend a while filing down 250 silver coins and make a flask themselves.  They took the skull back to the most southern rooms and threw it in the eastern one.  They closed the door and used pitons to wedge it shut.  They went back to the small central room with 2 doors and beds and had a short rest.

During their short rest they discussed where to go next.  Head north through the Blast Furnace chamber, head south east to the fungal room, explore the nearby side chamber, or go and try to talk with the trapped Flameskull with no way to perma-kill it yet.  They opted to head north for now.

The furnace room had an exit to the west to the door barricaded from the other side which they had already explored, and an exit to the north which they confirmed connects to the crevasse they found two bugbears digging in.  The crafted gulley that previously powered the water wheel also went out under the wall to the east, from which the sound of water and the periodic tremor grew louder.  There was also a corridor near this heading east, which is the path they chose.

Karson went ahead and found the short corridor quickly opened up in to a vast chamber, larger than his Darkvision could reveal to him.  There was open darkness to the south, and a corridor heading north down some steps and out of site.  In front of him he saw a building with two entrances.  He listened carefully at both doors and didn’t hear much, but light could be seen from the cracks in the double doors.  He went back to the party and they got in position ready for the double doors to be opened.  As they entered the large cavern some element in the walls and ceiling picked up the light they were carrying and bounced it around the cavern.  Every surface looked like it was covered in little stars, providing dim illumination throughout.  A second building could be seen further south.  Karson snuck in through the side door and found a simple damaged workshop showing signs of an ancient battle.  Another door could be seen in front of him, with light escaping from under it.  He waited by this door for signs to act while the others opened the double doors.  Melandrach gave a quick listen at the double doors and could hear what sounded like a small fire crackling on the other side.  He gave the group a nod and opened them.

The doors opened in to a large workshop which was badly damaged by the ancient spell battle that had laid waste to the mine. Worktables taking up two corners of the room were scorched, and the plaster has been burned off the masonry walls. In the middle of the room, a stone pedestal held a small brazier in which an eerie green flame danced and crackled. The brazier and its pedestal appeared to have been untouched by the forces that destroyed this area.

Behind the brazier of green flame floated a spherical creature measuring roughly four feet in diameter. Four eyestalks protrude from its central mass, two on each side. In the centre of the body was a large eye that stared at them. “Hello,” said a thick, burbling voice inside the heads of all who could see it.

The green beholder seemed polite and pleased to see them and they had a conversation.  The beholder revealed his name is Netyrk and that he was guarding the Spellforge and the items created from it, gesturing to the only two clean items in the room, a mace and a set of half plate.  The party tried to tell him that the mine had fallen and everyone was dead, but Netyrk insisted it was a fully operational mine and he’d spoken to the miners recently.  When asked what he could see in the room he greatly downplayed the damage, insisting it just needed a good clean and wasn’t largely destroyed.  They asked if they could enter the room and he asked what they were doing there.  They said that the mine had been attacked and they had been called in to check the threat had been fully removed and it was safe again.  Netyrk remembered the battle and insisted it was recent, when it had been 500 years ago.  He was happy to see them and let them enter, but asked them to not touch anything they shouldn’t.  They had a look around the room and let Karson in from the side door.  The breastplate had a gold dragon motif worked into its design, and the head of the mace was shaped like a sunburst and made of solid brass.  This was presumably Lightbringer, the mace they had read about long ago, commissioned by the church of Lathander.  They asked who his boss was and who had created the items.  Foreman Grindle Rezinbakker was the name they were given and they were pointed towards him for more answers.  Netyrk continued to act like all was well in the mine and he’d spoken to Grindle only a few days ago at most, although one day is pretty much the same as the next when you don’t leave this room.

They said they needed to keep securing the mine but they’d be back later and headed to the southern building.  They listened at the door and heard nothing before opening the door.  Dust, ash, walls blackened by fire, and heaps of debris beneath the sagging ceiling showed that this room was damaged by a destructive blast. The furnishings-tables, chairs, bookshelves, beds-were charred or splintered, but otherwise well preserved. A scorched iron chest stood near the foot of one of the beds.

They filed in to the room and began looking around.  As Devere approached the chest and started talking about opening it, a smoky shadowy mass began rising out of the floor, and took on a human form.  “Your presence is offensive to me, your life forfeit. My treasures are mine alone, not yours to plunder!”  He looked about the group, in particular towards Devere.  Devere asked if he was the offensive one.  The apparition responded that this was his home and they should get out.  Devere looked around at the group for help and they shrugged and gestured for him to take the lead.  Devere said they’d leave.  They carefully backed out, covering their rears, and closed the doors behind them.

They backed off a bit and had a chat about what to do next.  They considered asking Netyrk about who this spirit is, but decided that was pointless as he still thinks it’s 500 years ago.  They knew they couldn’t leave it here as they were hired to clear the mine and this would not be safe for Gundren.  The beholder might be safe to leave here as he appears to be one of the original employees and they might be able to convince it to accept new management.  They agreed to head back in and kill the spirit.  Araloth said he was sure it is a Wraith.  An evil spirit of malice infused with negative energies.  It was likely once a living human a long time ago.  They got in position and Devere kicked open the door, shouting, “By the light of Lathander, your presence in this realm is anathema to every living thing!  We will quench your fire and send you to the pits where you belong!”

Karson charged past him, but the wraith was waiting behind the door expecting this.  It attacked Karson, sucking the life from his bones (DM: and reducing his max HP).  Karson countered, attacking with both his weapons.  Araloth ran down from the roof, through the doorway and along the inside wall to slash at him, before backing up to stand upside down on the ceiling.  The Wraith lashed out at the only target in range, but missed Karson.  Bilba crept in and put an arrow into the Wraith and Ramond moved to flank it, hitting with a Divine Smite.  It lashed out at him feasting on his life force, rejuvenating itself partially.  Melandrach ran in and beat it with his stick and then punched it to death with a Flurry of Blows.  They then looted the room, pulling some trinkets out of the chest.  The books on the shelves seemed to be a mix of history texts and guides and notes on magical item creation.  One of the books had a few pages stuck inside that did not match the rest of the book.  They were handwritten in dwarven, but had a drawing of an elven plaque that had been badly copied.  The pages appear to be torn from of a larger text and start mid-sentence.  They detail the authors stay overnight in a ruined elven temple he was hiding in after some unspecified incident.  He made drawings of what he saw and the next day kept notes on his attempts to find his way back to civilisation as he was apparently lost deep within the Mere of Dead Men.  The elven plaque was hard to read as it was such a bad copy, but it suggested Sehannine Moonbow had once visited the temple and left an artefact behind which the temple had dedicated itself to guarding.

They concocted a plan to get Lightbringer from the beholder so headed back to the northern building.  They popped inside and said some of them were representatives of the Church of Lathander (Gesturing towards Devere, the cleric of Lathander) and they were here to collect their commission, the mace Lightbringer.  This worked and Devere was able to take the mace.  He tried to collect the plate too, but Netyrk asked him to stop.  They tried to pump Netyrk for information on who that commission was for, but he would not tell them, siting Client Confidentiality.  They eventually gave up trying and headed north.

The northern passageway took them to a vast underground lake.  Every two minutes something would bumble up under the water and burst forward.  Water would slam against the banks and the water level would raise almost enough to flood the land around it.  This seemed to be the source of the periodic tremors, although they could not work out what the source of this activity was.  The followed the path around and it lead them back to the crevasse the Hobgoblins had been digging in.  They then spent 20 minutes trying to work out the original water network in this cavern, eventually concluding water flowed from the west to the east favouring the manmade canals and terminating in the north eastern lake.  An earthquake had created a new exit in the crevasse and had redirected the water away from the water wheel.  They stopped to dig for a few hours to find whatever the Black Spider had been looking for and pulled out some magic gauntlets.  They decided to head back to camp and see if Gundren knew anything about the Beholder, the Flameskull,  or the original defences of the mine.

They got back to camp and had a check with Gundren who didn’t know anything he hadn’t already told them.  He had packed a selection of tools for mining and metalworking which the group borrowed to spend 8 man hours filing down silver coins.  Talindra also identified the Mace and the Gauntlets.

Lightbringer, +1 Mace

This +1 mace was made for a cleric of Lathander, the god of dawn. The head of the mace is shaped like a sunburst and made of solid brass. It was possibly the last item made in the Spellforge at Wave Echo Cave before the mine was lost centuries ago and has never been used before.

When attuned to by a follower of Lathander, this weapon can glow up to as bright as a torch when its wielder commands.

Gauntlets of Ogre Power

Your Strength score is 19 while you wear these gauntlets. They have no effect on you if your Strength is 19 or higher without them.

Devere took the mace and the party decided that Karson was the best fit for the Gauntlets.  They rested in camp overnight so Devere could craft some Holy Water in the morning.  The night passed by uneventfully, but when Devere got up to pray during the sunrise something unexpected happened.  As the first rays of sunrise hit his new mace it began to vibrate and it lit up by itself.  There was a flash of power within it, echoed within Devere and he became aware of a new power within the mace: While at full brightness, its wielder gains a +1 bonus to spell attack rolls and to the saving throw DCs of their divine spells. (DM: He didn’t notice this new line at first and said, “oh great.  It’s a torch”.  3-4 seconds of silence before there was a more excited “Oh!”).

The party got themselves ready and went back to the mine and decided to speak to Netyrk again.  They tried to convince him that he’d been in the mine longer than he realised.  They showed him Urmon’s journal (DM: They found this with Glasstaff’s stuff.  It was written 500 years ago by a dwarf who had been at the mine when Lightbringer was being worked on).  They showed him the dates on the entries and how old the book was.  He wasn’t ready to believe them, but he was listening.  Melandrach also realised that this handwriting matched the pages they had found yesterday.

They told Netyrk the truth as best they could.  They persuaded him to look outside this chamber.  He wouldn’t leave, but he stood in the doorway as they pointed towards the dead bodies scattered around.  He insisted they were just resting.  Weren’t they?  They picked one up and brought it over.  Bits fell off on the way.  Under close inspection, reinforced with their persuasion, they convinced Netyrk that it had been 500 years, not only a few years.  Netyrk took a moment to absorb this, and then said his contract had expired.  A portal opened behind him, and as he disappeared through it, he thanks the group.  They looted the half plate and headed south to deal with the Flameskull.

They tried to talk to it through the door, but all they got was death threats and maniacal laughter.  They quickly realised talking wouldn’t get them anywhere so they came up with a plan, took up positions and opened the door.  3 Zombies came pouring out.  This fight didn’t last long and the party downed the zombies and the Flameskull with much more ease than last time (DM: it was about midnight and we were all making mistakes.  I forgot his Blur and Shield spells until it was too late to make much difference.  Devere attacked the burning skull with fire at one point!).  Devere poured the Holy Water over it, and it fizzed and bubbled like it was acid.  It melted away like a cheap plastic toy in an oven.

They debated leaving the fungus for Gundren to deal with, but decided best not to.  There could be something hostile living in there.  Talindra sent her Owl familiar to scout through the room.  As it flapped about the fungus unleashed a thick cloud of spores and the Owl choked and died before it could escape.  The spore cloud added away and Devere sent in a Flaming Sphere to burn the fungus.  This seemed to work well, so he sent in another and then they went in after with other fire spells and cleared the room up.

With the fungus gone, the noticed a circle of runes carved in to the floor where the fungus had been.  An earthquake had broken the ground here allowing the original fungus entry and had put a crack through the runes.  Fungus grew out of that crack and had lifted up a section of rock over the years.  Talindra tried to read the runes and concluded they were magic in origin, but she couldn’t read most of them.  The one she thought she knew was something to do with transportation or teleportation.

With the mine now cleared they called Gundren over to join them.  They took him and the miners on a tour telling them what they had encountered and what the risks and challenges might be going forwards.  Gundren asked them to hang around for a few days and guard them until they were sure it was safe.  They were going to have to reopen some collapsed shafts and didn’t know if anything might be living in those areas.

(DM: The party have agreed and Gundren will hold them here for 3 more days before allowing them to leave.  They will be kept busy the first day, but as the miners get used to the place they’ll have a lot more free time, basically finding themselves “on call”.  This gives them some free time in the mine to do as they see fit.  Gundren has asked that anyone magically inclined take a look at the Spellforge and figure out how it works.  We called the session and I’m hoping to deal with this time across the week over Discord.  They now own 10% of a mine and will get 10% of the profits, once it’s up and running.  They also have access to the mythical Spellforge.  This was used to make magic items with much more ease than normal, long long ago.)

The party spent 3 days in the mine doing occasional guard duty as old shafts were reopened.  Occasionally a rat swarm, a jelly, or a skeleton would be revealed and dealt with, but mostly the party got some down time to do with as they wanted.  Devere announced that he wants to stay and protect the mine for now and returned some of his magic items to the party, but kept his new mace. (DM: Real life is clashing right now.  We hope to see him return later).  They party made plans for the next week or two.  Talindra wanted to stay here for a few more days and finish a project she had been working on in the Spellforge.  Thorivor wanted to return to town and develop his potion crafting.  Ramond wanted to head to Neverwinter to do the kind of serious trading that can’t be done in the backwater town of Phandalin.

They headed back to town, leaving Talindra and Devere behind.  When they got there Ramond went off to buy a saddle and barding for his new summonable horse while the others parked the horse and cart.  As he returned to the group they were greeted by an older looking Druid who introduced himself as Reidoth (DM: They have a quest to find this missing druid.  It took a few minutes for them to put two and two together, at least out loud for me to hear).  He said he needed some help with a threat and the animals he’d been speaking to had suggested them.  The animals had told him about their adventures in Neverwinter Wood dealing with goblinoids at Cragmaw Castle.  (DM: The druid was supposed to be an NPC who didn’t leave Thundertree but when Devere said he was leaving over Discord in the morning I had another friend offer to sign up with a healer and I suggested he rewrite this character and make it his own.  Had he not I think they’d have spent a week in Neverwinter shopping before going to Thundertree and I’d have had Reidoth be a dragon’s lunch by then)

He’d been checking up on the ruins of Thundertree a few weeks back and an injured young green dragon had crash landed there and taken residence in an abandoned tower.  He’d had a conversation with this Venomfang to ask her to move along.  She’s said she was too injured (big visible wound across left side of neck and in to the wing a little) and just needed a place to heal up and would leave when she was strong enough.  An injured dragon was still too much for Reidoth so he didn’t push the issue and chose to watch events from a safe distance.  It’s been a couple of weeks and the dragon has shown no signs of moving on and just seems to be getting more comfortable, and now some dodgy folks in robes and masks have moved in to town too.  This is far too close to Neverwinter for such a threat to get a stronghold and so Reidoth has come looking for aid in removing that threat, one way or another.  The party agreed to help and used the Sending Stones to call Talindra to town.  They ate lunch and got to know each other and then headed towards Tresendar Manor to speak to Sildar Hallwinter.

At the top of the hill they can see that the ground floor is ready for use, but the upstairs is still being worked on.  When they enter they are greeted by Sildar who calls four soldiers to attention behind him.  There’s a chat about how things have gone and Sildar congratulates them.  He then says his work in town is done.  He came here to find Iarno and make sure his mission is a success.  Iarno was sent to town to establish a constabulary to guard Phandalin and now Sildar has the manor ready for use for that and some special agents (the party) protecting town.  He’s had four junior members of The Lords Alliance stationed at the manor and it’ll be their job to act as town guard, under the leadership of the party.  He had one last request of the party.  If this mission is to be a lasting success then there needs to be some locals in the constabulary, not just Lords Alliance soldiers.  If it’s just outsiders then sooner or later the townsfolk will see them as such, and treat them as invaders.  The constabulary needs to be seen as part of the town so needs to have members of the town within its ranks.  The party have been asked to keep an eye out for suitable people to recruit and perhaps train.  Sildar said he’d be heading off to Neverwinter in the morning to get his next assignment.  The party said they were heading that way too and Sildar asked to join them on the road.

They rested up and the journey to Neverwinter was uneventful.  They arrived late on the third day and got rooms at an inn.  They spent the next day selling off their gems, trinkets, and second hand weapons and armour without going overboard looking for the best price.  They stayed a second night and headed towards Thundertree.  They got within sight of two with an hour or two before sunset so while most made camp, Araloth, Karson and Reidoth (in the form of a giant spider) went for a quick look around town.  They skirted around the outside at first and then crept in to town when they couldn’t see any threats.  Araloth climbed up a building for a better view as Karson went ahead.  As he was sneaking through some bushes under cover of twilight a twig snapped underfoot and it let out a grating chirrup.  All the bushes around him started to shake and chirrup and tried to attack him.  He was surrounded by Twig Blights!  A short and easy combat ensued as twig blights are weak and Karson gets 5 attacks on round one now so killed 5 of them before anyone could act.

Once the Twig Blights were dead, they got a little more cautious.  They climbed up a building for a better view and Reidoth pointed towards where the shifty men in cloaks had been seen.  They sat around and watched for half an hour and eventually one of them came out for a smoke.  They’d seen masks and cloaks like this before when they’d been sent to deal with Claugiyliamatar’s hobgoblin army.  These were more dragon cultists!  They crept back to camp and discussed what they’d seen.  Thorivor (DM: After I’d given him a swift kick under the virtual table to look at his backstory) revealed that this was his home town and he’d seen the recent state of it before.  He shared what information he had on the local monsters.  Twig Blights, Giant Spiders, and Ash Zombies (Zombies somehow infused with ash from the eruption decades ago).  All things that Reidoth had already mentioned, but this reinforced everything).  They got a good night’s rest and prepared to head out the next day to meet Venomfang.

It was about 11pm and doing anything would have kept us there for a long time so we called the session for the week.

DM: We had some mild technical difficulties tonight.  Discord chat kept freezing so we set up a google meeting.  It worked well, but had an unexpected feature: Real time subtitles.  This lead to hilarity and the occasional breakdown in events as we stopped to laugh and make fun of the subtitles.

Reidoth and I had spent the day over text roleplaying through his last week or two at Thundertree as the dragon arrived and their pregame encounters.

The party decided to investigate the Dragon Cultists before approaching the dragon.  They didn’t want any surprises during that fight.  They walked around the outside of town and split up as the headed towards the Cultists.  Thorivor got a sniper perch on a nearby building, Araloth and Bilba hid in some nearby ruins and everyone else hid behind their building while Ramond, Reidoth and Talindra knocked on the front door.  A face appeared through the shutters on the nearby window asking who was there.  They introduced themselves and said they’d just had a chat with the lovely dragon Venomfang and they thought they’d come over and introduce themselves.  The guard said he thought Favric would like that and let them in and showed them down the hall.  He introduced them to Favric relaying what they had said and went back to his post.

A conversation with Favric ensued where the party figured out the Cultists didn’t actually know much about the dragon and hadn’t actually met her yet, although they wanted to meet her and possibly serve her.  The party played friendly and acted like they wanted to protect Venomfang too, even saying they wanted her to move along as there were threats to her nearby.  Reidoth revealed that he knew Venomfang had been attacked by a much larger dragon before heading here and suggested that they would be wiser to seek out and serve that dragon instead.  Talindra uses Suggestion to motivate Favric to go and seek him out.  Favric asked about any leads to track down this dragon and Reidoth pointed them towards a Sage in the Icewind Dale amongst the ten towns called Gelan Brightleaf, saying they had more information. (DM: They’re a member of the Emerald Enclave Reidoth knows about.  He’s setting them up to get captured)  Favric thanked them and said this seemed like the best plan.  The party left and 10 minutes later the cultists walked out and headed off with their bags on the backs.

They party had an unsuccessful search of the building and then swept through the buildings one by one heading west and then north from there without much difficulty.  They ran in to a few Twig Blights and a couple of Giant Spiders but they posed little resistance.  Reidoth pointed them towards the old Herbalists shop they were asking about and they recovered the treasure Mirna Dendrar had offered them as thanks for rescuing her (An emerald necklace hidden under a counter).  After a short rest in Reidoth’s holdout they decided it was time to face the dragon.

They opted for the stealthy approach at first.  Reidoth cast Pass Without Trace and they moved up the winding path or through the woods staying out of site of the tower.  On their way up Talindra sent her familiar up at a great height to see if the Dragon could be spotted in the tower through the hole in the roof while staying out of sight.  The dragon’s presence was confirmed and the Owl was sent away to safety.  As they turned the final corner, exposing themselves to the tower, an unseen voice spoke up from within.

Venomfang: “You have returned.  I see you brought friends.  Am I to assume our deal does not stand?”

Reidoth: “Our deal stands.  However the deal was that once you have returned to heal you would leave.”

V: “I said I would leave when I was healed and ready.  I am not fully healed and I am not ready.”

Re: “You’ve been hunting for yourself well enough.  There are powers taking in interest in your presence and it would be in your best interest to move on.”

V: “I am not ready to go and as you pointed out I am a capable hunter.  Think on that.“  They could hear the sounds of stone scraping on stone from within the tower.

Talindra: “But while you are out hunting you are likely to draw the attention of the other local dragons.  Do you really want to fight Cryovain or Claugiyliamatar?  You should move along to avoid that”

(DM: Talindra tried to cast Suggestion on the dragon, but couldn’t get line of sight from where she stood)

V: “I don’t know this Cryovain and Claugiyliamatar has little interests this far north.  I’ll leave when I’m ready.  I still need to finish healing.”

Ramond: “You would do well to listen to us.  If we have heard of you so have others.  More threats will come.”

Re: “I have not broken your trust.  Have I not healed you              ?  Have I not brought you food when you were unable to hunt?  I am servant of the balance and the balance has tipped.  It is not safe for you here anymore.”

V: “You have taken care of me and that is appreciated.  I have no desire to hurt you, but here you come having brought mercenaries with you.  You bring threat, look at you.  You’ve stormed through this place killing everything.”

Re: “I did say before there were numerous threats in the town.  We did have to make our way through.”

V: “You have the right to defend yourselves, as do I.”

Ra: “So have you chosen the path where we must drive you away?”

V: “This is my home for now and I have no desire to leave.  You’re the ones that come here bearing weapons.  You’re the ones threatening me, all because that old man asks you to.

Talindra took a few careful steps away from the group, worrying about breath weapons.

Re: “You refer to this as your home.  I believe the terms of our deal were that this was in my ward.  I protect it in the service to the gods.  Do you now claim it as your land?”  He cast detect thoughts and only used it to read the surface, not pushing deeper.   He then relayed his findings to Ramond and Talindra telepathically, telling them, “She doesn’t intend to leave.  She is healthier than she appears”

Ra: “You have chosen your path.  We resign ourselves to the gods.  May Tempus smile upon us at the end of this day.” He started walking towards the tower and Araloth stepped out of the bushes around the western side of the tower.

V: “Very well.  You have chosen your path.  Those who leave shall be spared.  Come at me and I will defend myself.”  Then there was more scraping and banging from within and we rolled initiatives.

Bilba and Thorivor ran in to the bushes and readied an arrow for the enemy to appear.  Melandrach ran up to the cottage door as Araloth ran up the side of it and on to its roof and drank his Antitoxin potion (Everyone else drank theirs before heading up this path).  Ramond double moved in through the cottage door and in to the tower and engaged the dragon and cast Shield of Faith.  Talindra ran up to the nearest arrow slit and cast Web through it filling a 20ft cube binding the dragon, but missing the Ramond.  Karson moved up to an arrow slit and turned his sword in to a hawk, which attacked the dragon for him with the full strength of the sword, landing two of three attacks.  Venomfang considered staying put but chose to break free of the webs by flying upwards, taking hits from Ramond and Talon (The sword/hawk).  Forty feet in the air, she dropped two large chunks of masonry she was holding in Ramond’s general direction.  He got out of the way of one, but the other hit him.  As she rose up through the roof Bilba and Throivor unleashed their readied arrows, but the tower provided too much concealment at this angle.  Reidoth moved up and peeking over Karson’s shoulder through the arrow slits and past all the web, he was able to cast Haste on to Ramond.  As the wave of energy rushed through his system Ramond (DM: and his player) were overjoyed and let out a cry of delight.

Bilba shot at but missed the dragon, but Thorivor made up for this, landing three of his four Action Surge hits.  Melandrach ran through the cottage dropping his staff and drew his bow, landing two arrows before retreating back inside.  Araloth ran up the side of the tower and stood on the remaining walls and ledges.  He watched Ramond below run back through the cottage and draw his wand and unleash eight Magic Missiles in to the Dragon and then fire a Guiding Bolt at it.  Talindra walked east and cast Web at the Dragon in the air before backing up a bit.  Karson moved past her and shot Venomfang with his longbow.  Venomfang flew east through the web unhindered as it fell to the floor.  “Very well, keep your tower, but you’re paying a price.”  She then unleashed her poisonous breath over Karson and Talindra.  Karson fell unconscious and Talindra was left weakened.  Venomfang then continued flying east and lower to the ground, trying to get cover from a nearby building.  Reidoth quickly ran to heal Karson back to consciousness while Araloth walked down in to the tower and began the looting.

Bilba and Thorivor landed two more arrows in to her hide as Melandrach and Ramond gave chase.  Melandrach dropped his bow and scooped up his staff and ran full pelt towards the dragon.  He ran 40 feet up to the dense bushes, spent Ki to dash and long jumped over 20 foot of bushes before running his remaining 20 feet to end up just over 10 feet from the dragon.  He fired two Radiant Sunbolts in to the dragon, almost downing her.  Right behind him Ramond did similar.  He Channelled Divinity to make himself a hasted Peerless Athlete and jumped over thirty feet of bushes and was actually able to run past Melandrach and get toe to toe with Venomfang.  He swung his greatsword with all his momentum, but missed.  He landed his second attack and Divinely Smote the dragon with all he had.  He scramed out, “This is the path you chose!” and ran the greatsword through her neck.  Radiant light from the smite burst forth and the sounds of armies clashing could be heard.  The dragons momentum carried it forwards and she crashed in to the ground, tumbled and lay motionless and dead.

With the dragon dead the party joined Araloth in the looting as they got the breath back and discussed what dragon parts could be useful.  Along with cash and gems they found a scroll of misty step, and a scroll of lightning bolt.  Beneath the coins is a rusty old woodcutting axe of dwarven manufacture. Runes in Dwarvish on the axe head read, “Hew”.  Talindra ritually identified the axe:

Hew is a +1 battleaxe that deals maximum damage when the wielder hits a plant creature or an object made of wood. The axe’s creator was a dwarf smith who feuded with the dryads of a forest where he cut firewood.

DM: It was gone midnight, everyone was happy and laughing.  We called the game, discussed things and chuckled and went to our beds.

This has been a worthy experiment.  I definitely need to buff Cryvain and some other stuff from what the module suggests.  Eight players really skew the challenge needed.

The party cleared out the last two buildings, which contained Zombies coated in ash.  When struck they unleashed a small cloud of ash, causing those nearby to cough and choke for a short while.  They posed little challenge though and it was short work.  They pile dup the zombie bodies after and burnt them to ensure they couldn’t come back.  While that was going on they butchered the dragon and took any parts they thought might have value or be of use.  They skinned the scales, took the wing membranes, recovered the poison gland (and filled two vials with poison for use later), extracted the liver, but made a mess of the heart.  They pulled out all the teeth and claws, and then decided to just take the whole head anyway as it had been decapitated.  Melandrach decided he might try to make some weapons from the leg bones (Chat on paired batons, or making a nun chuck) so they extracted two good sized bones from each leg.  When they were done Reidoth used Move Earth to bury the remains, and then do the same with the zombies once the fire was done.

When they were done the brought the wagon in to town and loaded it up and then set off for a few hours before camping for the night.  While sat around the campfire Talindra spoke to Reidoth and asked him if he knew anything about the Cult of Talos.  He told them about their experiences and revealed that she’d been given a vision of lighting destroying the Shrine of Tymora in Phandalin.  Reidoth revealed he was familiar with the cult in general, but not locally.  His community had previously been attacked by cultists a long time ago and barely survived.  This vision could be a warning.  Reidoth and Talindra are concerned.  Reidoth also thanked Talindra for finding a non-violent way of dealing with the cultists at Thundertree.  As dinner was being eaten after, Talindra was going through her backpack and her face dropped and she ran off, upset, in to the woods.  Reidoth followed, trying to stay out of site.  When she stopped, he watched her cry a little while burying a small rat.  Reidoth decided to give her some privacy and returned to camp and Talindra followed shortly after.

The next morning they set out for Neverwinter, and arrived late in the afternoon.  They booked rooms at an inn and set out to do a little trading.  Araloth went out alone with a handful of damaged claws, teeth and loose scales to have a chat with a private contact.  Talindra led the rest of the party to a shop she’d previously sold some old spellbooks to.  The Component Companion is a magical supplies shop in the nicer part of town selling spell components, arcane, alchemical and herbalist supplies, and a selection a mage friendly weapons and garments (often more decorative than practical).  Behind the counter is a male gnome dressed in blue and purple robes that Talindra recognises and greets as Sliknap Bimbleskoot.  They ask about buying some powdered rubies for components and get what they need.  They pick up a couple of flasks of Holy Water, and Talindra asks about scrolls of Tensors Floating Disk, Water breathing and Leomunds Tiny Hut.  Reidoth points out that he can cast Water Breathing so Talindra only buys the other two scrolls.

They then ask about how much he’d pay for various dragon parts.  They offer up most of everything, except the scales, wings, and 3 leg bones.  He appraises everything individually (DM: and I pull values out of thin air.  Who knows what any of that stuff is worth or if it even has use?) and they decide to think on it overnight.  When they pull money out of their smelly bag of holding and he recoils at the stench they suggest he’d have less smell to contend with if he offered them a better price on the parts and took that instead.  He says if they want to exchange then he’ll up his offer a bit (DM: about 20% extra), but they aren’t interested.  They buy their wares and head back to the inn.  Talindra says she has something to take care of and goes elsewhere.  Being much more familiar with the back alleys and the city in general she arrives back at the inn only a little after the others, and shortly after Araloth returned.

DM: Its then we ended things.  It was getting late, and I needed to handle Araloth’s side trek in private.  The group is planning to spend a little time doing their own thing before getting back to tracking down Cryovain around Phandalin.  I’ve asked them to send me a list of their immediate plans and I’ve already spent 2-3 hours today responding and planning stuff.  I expect to be doing this on and off across the week and then we can process the results next session.  Hopefully I’ll have enough time to figure out what they want, what I think is reasonable, and how to deal with that in that time.  This will be interesting.  I’ll be DMing without any kind of module as backup.  Not sure I’ve ever really done this for more than a scene or two before.  Watch me crash and burn and take the campaign with me!

Welcome to the Downtimeisode where everyone does whatever they want with no module to hold their hands.  The safety is off on this one folks!  Send help!

Over dinner, the party discussed their plans for the next few days.  Some wanted to head back to Phandalin and some had business in town.  Talindra had taken a few requests for magic items to create and asked the group if she should focus her time on Sending Stones, Pearls of Power, or Cloaks of Protection.  The group agreed that while they all would be good, the cloak would never not be useful to everyone.  Reidoth cast Continual Flame on Ramond’s pommel and a coin for Bilba.  Over breakfast the next day he also cast it on a dragons tooth for Melandrach.  After breakfast, they all went their separate ways.

Karson and Thorivor hung out at the bar, waiting for Reidoth and Talindra so they could head back to town together.  Thorivor pulled out a notebook and started assembling his ideas towards crafting a set of magic bracers to aid his archery.  Araloth said he had run in to an old friend and he’d be gone for maybe a week helping them out with something.  He’d catch up with them later, either here or in Phandalin.

Melandrach asked around for craftsmen and found someone to turn one dragon’s wing in to a cloak for him, and a jeweller to affix his flaming dragon tooth to a silver chain.  When he wears it he now has flames rising up under his chin.  He also found a weapon smith to turn three dragon bones in to an iron capped three section chain staff that can also be used as a regular staff.  He then spent the remainder of the day and the next day wondering around the temples asking if anyone knew anything about an ancient elven temple in the Mere of Dead Men.  Nobody really did, but while in the temple of Denier (Lesser god of art) he saw an old painting.  This painting was of five trees that grew together to form one vast tree above head height.  This matched one of the markers to find his temple, as described in the journal pages they recovered from the mine recently.  He figured that if he took it to the Mere he could line up the mountains in the background and the sun and shadows and find where it was painted.  He asked the priest, who said it was called “The Midday Meeting of the Council of Elders”, but he could not take it.  He was advised to check art galleries and bookshops to see if he could find a copy.  He then spent the next seven days checking everywhere he could think of, before successfully picking up an old copy.  Whatever time is left he plans on continuing teaching himself Herbalism from a manual he found a while back.

Reidoth went to speak to speak to his contact in the Emerald Enclave and report recent events and his plans and concerns.  Realising he had spent many months in the wilderness and was catching some attention in the streets, he also stopped off for a wash, shave, and haircut.  He then returned to the inn to wait for the others heading to Phandalin.

Talindra returned to the Component Companion and sold off the unwanted dragon parts and then returned to the inn to transcribe the scrolls in to her spellbook.  When her lunch was served she was also handed a short note that someone had dropped off for her.  After reading it and finishing her meal she touched up her disguise and left the inn.  She ducked down some back alleys and knocked on a door and Andrakas Zherichar, a Blue Tiefling male answered. “Darri, wasn’t it?  I’m sorry I couldn’t find your friend.  Perhaps you should come in?”  She entered and he offered Darri Talindra’s favourite brew, which she declined.  They had a short chat.  In the guise of Darri, Talindra had asked him the night before to get an offer of employment to a street urchin halfing girl called Miri Zithak.  He’d been unable to track her down, but had uncovered something concerning.  No one had seen her for a few weeks, and the last time she was seen, she was being chased by a band of local small time pickpockets calling themselves The Reavers.  Her friend Talindra was also being chased and she hasn’t been seen since either.  It appears the Reavers caught up to Miri, but Andrakas gets the impression that Talidra may have gotten away.  (DM: heavy wink to the camera.  Talindra refused to break her characters character) Talindra slipped him 5gp and thanked him for his help, before requesting that this stay between them.  She then returned to the inn, and messaged Bilba on the sending stones to come back for a chat.

On the second day, Karson, Reidoth, Thorivor and Talindra began the three day walk back to Phandalin.  Talindra vanished off to the mine to continue her work, and now has a homemade Rod of the Pact +1, and knows how to enchant Cloaks of Protection, +1.  Thorivor lost himself in research and now knows how to make Bracers of Archery.  Karson and Reidoth went off in to the woods together to seek out any further activity from Cultists of Talos for the remainder of this downtime.

Bilba had decided to use this time in town to relax and had gone off to a casino.  When she got the call she returned and Talindra asked for her help in finding out what had happened.  (We are gonna see the sending stones used a lot this session.  It’s interesting.  Even when someone has their camera off you can still actually hear them counting to the 25 word limit on their fingers while they talk).  Talindra explained that she had a friend who was missing and was last seen being chased by a gang based in the docks.  He gave her Miri’s name, and showed an illusion of what she looks like, and asked her to look in to this for her.  He said they were chasing her because they didn’t like her pickpocketing on their turf but she had refused to work for them.  (With this sudden unexpected workload dumped on an unprepared player I skipped to someone else for a little to give her a chance to plan)

Ramond headed off to find a temple to Tempus and quickly found there wasn’t one in the city, but there was a shrine a few miles South East of town, called the Shrine of Swords.  He mounted up and headed out and eventually stumbled upon a building shaped like a giant gauntlet stood on its finger tips.  The entrance was between the thumb and forefinger.  The building was constructed out of a metal mesh made from spears and polearms and coated in shields and sections of armour.  Two guards stood in the doorway wearing the symbol of Tempus and a priest could be seen near an altar inside, under the palm.  Ramond greeted the guards and approached the priest, who introduced himself as Rauthat Jhuth Straug (Rauthat is a rank within the church.  It’s one of the higher ranks).  Ramond said he’d been adventuring in the area and would like to spend some time here reaffirming his faith and providing religious service for the shrine.  He wanted to prove himself worthy to be considered for membership with the Order of the Steel Fang, should there be a local chapter.

He was invited in to the shrine and advised that those looking to enter and benefit from their services traditionally donate a weapon to the shrine.  Ramond pulled out a warhammer and offered that up.  Rauthat Straug placed this upon the altar and an illusion formed over it displaying its last battle against some undead.  Rauthat Straug praised Ramond’s technique, then took the weapon and added it to a nearby rack.  He then asked what Ramond had done that would earn him consideration for membership in the Order.  Ramond briefly listed his achievements, mentioning most of their adventures so far, including taking his Greatsword from an enemy whose life he had spared.  When Ramond was done, the priest asked to look at the sword.  He placed it on the alter and got a replay of the battles at Thundertree, especially against the dragon.  When the illusion faded, he picked up the sword and told Ramond that his deeds were great and he was certainly a mighty warrior.  However, it takes more than strength and ability to join the Steel Fangs.  It also takes bravery.  Venomfang had been a powerful foe, but he had been greatly outclassed by Ramond and his allies.  Ramond needed to go out and face a foe that scares him, who could defeat him.  Fight this foe on honorable battle and then return with their blood still on his weapon.  Only then he would be considered for membership.

Ramond thanked him for this opportunity, and requested to be of service to the shrine.  He was asked to clean and sharpen all the weapons and armour here.  He looked around and there were many.  He spent the next two days with a whetstone, a bottle of Brasso, and a selection of dusters and shammies.  When he was done he proudly approached the priest, who said he meant ALL the weapons and around and gestured to the building itself and handed Ramond a safety harness. (DM: all in, this was 10 days scrubbing, which Ramond was portrayed as loving.  He also stank of metal polish the whole week.  He seemed to enjoy messing about hanging from the ceiling and spent a little while pretending to fly before getting back to work).

Bilba decided she was going to head back to the casino for a few days and try and win big to see whose attention that might draw, either pickpockets who might be Reavers, or the Pit boss who might think she’s scamming them.  She won on the first day, but things didn’t go her way for the next few days.  On the sixth day she decided to try a little sleight of hand to boost her odds.  She has a magic bow that allows her to gain advantage on one dex check a day.  I gave her the opportunity to pick which dice she rolled.  Either take the better dice and try and win, or take the worse dice and try and get caught cheating.  She got a 10 and a 22 and took a moment to think and opted to have the dealer see the extra card she had up her sleeve for a moment, rather than try for the winnings.  The dealer called over a bouncer and explained what had happened and he escorted her to a back room.  She was made to wait for a moment before they were called in.  The man behind the desk asked for an explanation and Bilba said she was looking for an introduction to the Thieves Guild and this seemed like a good way to get the attention of someone who may have contacts.  There was a discussion and he asked for every penny back she had won, which she offered up before he became more insistent.  He wrote an address on a piece of paper and folded it in half.  He slid it across the desk, but kept his hand on it.  He said she was never to return to his casino ever again.  She agreed, took the paper and left.

Bilba followed the directions to a back alley and knocked on the door.  A slit opened and she explained that she’d been given their location by a mutual friend and showed the piece of paper.  The guard grudgingly opened the door and told her she would be watched closely.  She found herself in a repurposed dark warehouse holding a pop up community. A black market, some bars, some games of chance, all being run from temporary structures within.  She spent some time mingling and getting to know the set up.  She introduced herself to the Thieves Guild and found out what she needed to do to pay her respects and not get lynched by them and become a member.  She asked about doing a job for them so she could prove herself, and got a place on a robbery the next day.  A well to do house in town.  A simple mission we just skipped to the end of and she made back a little of the money she had lost at the casino.  She then milled about the guild and its bar, and started asking if anyone knew anything about Miri.  Unfortunately no one seemed to recognise her description. (DM: I was trying to work with her, but she rolled really badly on Investigation)

That evening Araloth arrived back at the inn and met up with Melandrach, Bilba and Ramond.  There was a long and frustrating (DM: Frustrating in character.  Fun for the players though) conversation about money and profit and who gets what magic items, and what happens if people sell their items.  Also a chat about trust and openness.  (DM: Interesting, but I didn’t take full notes on it all).  Generally, Araloth just being his usual skinflint penny pinching self.

Next morning, Bilba returned to the guild and tried a different approach.  She tried to vanish in to the background of the bar, not draw attention to herself, and nurse a drink all day, listening in to conversations around her.  She heard about a group of petty thieves and pickpockets operating around the docks.  They’re not really part of the thieves guild, but pay them just enough respect and profit share to not have the Guild come down hard on them.  They call themselves The Reavers, and they’ve recently escalated to kidnapping people and there’s some concern that the guild will be associated with this behaviour.  That’s all she could catch before they drifted too far to hear.

She returned to their Inn and used the sending stones to update Talindra and ask if she knows anything about The Reavers.  Talindra revealed she knew they are led by a half elf called Gadrille Refverdt.  They operate from the docks and think they are better than just a gang of pickpockets.  Talindra then fired up her Sending Stone to continue.  She didn’t know if they were connected to any other gangs in town.  They don’t like other pickpockets working at the docks.  Bilba shared her information with the others over breakfast in the morning.  Araloth suggested they head to the docks and investigate.  Melandrach suggested staging a fake pickpocketing of him there to try and draw the Reavers attention.  Ramond suggested using that as a backup plan, but going and looking for anyone pickpocketing they could question first.

Araloth and Bilba headed to the docks and nonchalantly watched life go by, looking for pickpockets.  They saw a little boy go running down the street, being chased by a girl.  She bumped in to a man unloading the morning catch, who dropped a couple of fish.  She lifted something from his pocket, called out, “sorry mister!” and continued chasing the boy.  They both vanished around the corner of a building laughing and shouting at each other. The crept up on them and watched from a distance as they shared the few copper they had gained.  Bilba and Araloth chose not to intervene and watched them from a distance for a while longer, looking out for other more interesting targets.  The kid repeated variations on the same trick a few more times, and around lunchtime they headed to a tavern called The Cauldron.  They chose to follow them in and saw them handing over coppers at the bar, ordering the cheapest meal on the menu.  Once the kids had sat down at a secluded table, they approached the bar, ordered meals and rinks, and ordered better food for the kids.  They asked the barman not to reveal who had proved the food, unless the kids were insistent.  When he served the kids they saw an exchange between them and eventually the barman pointed their way.  They gave the kids a wave and got a nervous smile in exchange.  Everyone ate up, and when the kids got up to leave Bilba got their attention and beckoned them over.  They had a chat and found out the Reavers used to dominate this area, and used to use this inn as something of a base of operations, but they’re all gone now.  About a week ago they just left.  No one’s seen them since.  They used to scare the kids, but now they’re gone they can operate in the docks.  Araloth offered to get them an introduction with the Thieves Guild so they could have some training and protection, but the kids insisted they just wanted to be left alone and they wouldn’t steal enough to get the Guilds attention, just enough to eat and live.  They let the kids go and stayed in the bar for a while, watching the barman, and people come and go.

Over breakfast the next monring they discussed events with the others and asked Ramond to come with them to intimidate the barman for more information.  They assumed he bust have been working with the Reavers.  They were also contacted by Talindra via Sending Stones.  Talindra had had a job offer for the group to escort supplies from Phandalin to a loggers camp in Neverwinter Wood.  It needed to head out in a few days’ time so everyone should start heading to town if they want the work.  Ramond put on all his weapons and armour, but left off any emblems of Tempus and they returned to The Cauldron.  He approached the barman and acted loud, big, and scary (DM: and aced an intimidation roll) and the barman kinda crumbled.  He revealed that he didn’t work for the Reavers.  He just runs the bar and a long while ago they just turned up and made it their place.  They bullied the staff and scared off the other patrons.  He knew they were bad news and made it a point to stay as uninvolved as he could be.  He heard nothing and asked no questions, all trying to stay safe.  He confirmed what the kids had said and just wanted to be left alone to get on with his life now the Reavers weren’t ruining it.  Disappointed, Ramond turned around and saw someone collecting plates from tables.  He pointed at them and, already talking loudly, called out, “You!  What do you know!”  The server almost dropped all the plates they were carrying, and tried to avoid eye contact and vanish out back to the kitchens, but Ramond blocked their path.  He got more of the same information out of the server, but they did reveal that their attitudes had changed recently.  They seemed more focused, like they were working towards something.  They also said they’d long had a suspicion there was more to them than just thievery.  Terrified, Ramond eventually let them go.  They vanished out back and just dumped all the plates loudly in to the sink.  Ramond gave the barman one gold to cover any broken crockery and they left.  Ramond returned to the shrine to finish his final (10^th) day of polishing and sharpening.

It was near midnight so we called it there.  I was really hoping to get them out of Neverwinter before the session ended, but people needed to sleep.  I really thought that they’d be done with downtime within an hour, two at most.  This was 4+ hours and we’re still not done and most of it was made up on the fly as we reacted to each other, even if I did already know what’s what plotwise.  It was intimidating, but I think we all had fun.  There was definitely lots of laughter.

Before leaving town Melandrach asked Araloth to use his contacts to sell along his Staff of Defence.  The spells in it were not getting used and he wanted to have a Cloak of Protection made and get a magic weapon that enhanced his offensive power.  They agreed to sell it now for 4,000gp, rather than auction it and probably get more, but have to wait for the money.  The party finished up their business in Neverwinter and early on the 11^th day there (Conveniently the 11^th Flamerule, 1491), and they headed back towards Phandalin, arriving late on the 13^th.  They headed towards the Manor for a rest only to discover they had gained a water feature outside.  Reidoth and Karson had recently returned from scouting around Neverwinter Wood and Reidoth had spent the last few days magically sculpting a pond as a shrine to his god, Eldath.  They went inside and met up, but there was no sign of Talindra or Thorivor, who were still at the Mine.  They spent the next couple of days relaxing, while waiting for them to return.

A little before lunch on the 15^th Flamerule, Talindra and Thorivor entered the Manor.  The group had a long chat about what they’d been up to.  Talindra revealed she could now make cloaks of protection, given time and money.  The dragon wings would be the basis for two.  She had also finished work on a Rod of the Pact, +1, which she had been working on for a long time now.  Thorivor had completed Glasstaff’s research in to crafting Potions of Invisibility.  He’d also gone through the library at the mine trying to research how to make Bracers of Archery.  While completing that research (Which needs components they don’t yet know how to get) he had found the recipe for Greater Potions of Healing so he could also make them, given time.

They headed over to burthens Provisions to start the mission.  He loaded two large crates on to their wagon, and handed them an inventory which needed to be signed by Tibor Westor, the Townmasters half-brother, and returned for payment.  They followed the road around Neverwinter Wood while deciding if they wanted to go straight there, or swing by Falcon’s Hunting Lodge.  Rumour has it he will put up anyone, so long as they bring a quality bottle of wine.  They followed the road east, avoiding entering the woods at first, then cut north directly towards the Lodge, eventually coming across a fortified compound standing in a clearing on the east side of a narrow river. A ten-foot high log palisade surrounded the compound, whose main building was a two -story stone-and-wood affair with a high-pitched roof, gables, window shutters, and a stone chimney. Attached to the main building was a blocky tower of grey stone, its high roof lined with battlements. Other structures included a two-story stable house and a gatehouse whose flat roof was enclosed by iron railings. A stone bridge spanned the river, ending before an oaken door set into the gatehouse’s outer wall. Mounted next to the door was a bell with a short rope hanging from its clapper.

They spread out on the near side of the bridge and Araloth crossed it and rang the bell.  A few minutes later the door was opened by an older gentleman dressed in an apron.  Araloth greeted him and asked for the Falcon.  The man asked if they were from Neverwinter looking to be taken out on a hunting expedition.  Araloth said they were delivering some supplies and were hoping to stay here for the night, and maybe share some stories.  He flashed an expensive bottle of wine, which he didn’t part with.  The man introduced himself as Corwin and welcomed them in.  He showed them to the guest quarters, a basic, large dormitory and said he would inform the master that he has guests.  He would call them for dinner in the main building in around an hour and a half.  When asked, Reidoth explained he is a vegetarian.  Corwin wandered off and left them to get settled in.

A while later Corwin retuned and led them over to a large dining room in the main building.  There was a large oak dining table surrounded by many high backed chairs.  A set of stairs to one side led up to a balcony encircling the room.  As their eyes rose up they noticed a series of trophies looking down on the room.  There were many heads mounted on plaques; deer, board, some larger game, and quite a few orc heads.  They spoke amongst themselves about this until Falcon entered.  He was wearing a fur-lined cloak over his studded leather armour. He stood 6 feet, 6 inches tall, and had black hair and broad shoulders. His eyes were as blue, cold, and sharp as ice, and he sported a neatly trimmed beard. Falcon moved with the casual confidence of one who fears nothing.

He greeted his guests and welcomed them to his home.  Arlaoth stepped forward and offered up his bottle.  Falcon called out for glasses and Corwin returned with a tray with glasses and more wine, which Falcon served up and shared around as everyone got comfy.  Shortly afterwards Corwin returned with a roast for everyone.  Reidoths meal was sufficient but uninspiring.  Mainly just roasted vegetables, probably roasted in the juices of the boar, but Reidoth chose not to pursue that line of thought.  Falcon enquired if they were looking to do some hunting.  Talindra explained they were on a delivery run from Phandalin, but they had also heard about Orcs in the woods causing trouble and might be looking to deal with them, if Falcon knows anything about that.  She gestured up towards the trophies.  Falcon explained that there always been a small tribe of Orcs around.  They’ve always been a blight he’d rather be without, but more recently they’ve allied themselves with some half orcs and some spellcasters / sorcerers and they’ve become a much bigger problem.  They seem more motivated and much more active.  He’s been doing his part to keep their numbers down.  He really doesn’t like Orcs at all.  They’ve also got these stick creatures that seem to do their bidding.  They seem to be based out of an old house south and east of here.  He’s been doing his part to thin the herd.  He asks the party to head out to the house and kill them all.  If they do, he’ll give them some Boots of Elvenkind.  The party agreed and debated what to do next.  They decided taking the package in to battle was not a smart play, so said they’d complete the delivery first.  Falcon understood and said he’d keep killing off any he could in the meantime.

They enjoyed their meals and went back to their room.  The next morning they headed towards the loggers camp.  A couple of hours in to their journey as they entered a small clearing they could head something moving with speed through the bushes ahead.  They stopped and spread out a little, and a boar ran out ahead, and stopped, staring straight at them like a deer caught in the headlights.  A growing buzzing could be heard behind it.  Everyone waited to see what would happen next, except for Reidoth who cast Speak with Animals and Talindra who sent her owl ahead to scout.  Reidoth stepped forward and as a series of grunts and snorts, tried to tell the board that they are friendly.  The boar looked at him and backed up a smidge, but when the buzzing drew closer it moved away from them, towards the tree line to one side.  Four Stirges became visible from within the tree line, heading towards the Boar.

The party made short work of the Stirges, including the eight more that followed right behind.  Reidith continued trying to talk to the boar, who had defended himself badly, while trying to get away.  With the threat dead, Reidoth said that they’d saved the boar and he was free to go, and enquired about any other threats they should know about.  The boar explained that the woods are a dangerous place.  There’s a scary man to the east who likes to kill creatures.  There’s a green dragon to the west.  Reidoth told him the dragon is gone, but other lesser threats remain.  The boar explained there are stick creatures about.  The boar asked what they are up to.  Reidoth said they are passing through the woods and would not hunt him.  He asked where they were going.  Reidoth insisted they were just passing through.  The boar asked if he could go, and Reidoth watched him back off and leave with caution and suspicion.  Reidoth shared his information, and the party headed back on their path.

A couple of hours later they found the logging camp spread along the south shore of the river, where a dozen tents were arranged on a sandy beach. Near a dock stood a cabin with logs stacked under an awning. Older cabins close by had been torn down to leave only stone chimneys and foundations. A grim silence hung over the camp, and they could see no one around.  Something felt very wrong.  Ramond held back to guard the wagon and the others slowly spread out and approached the closest group of tents.  As they drew near the ground began to shake and two giant bug creatures burst forth and vomited acid over Karson and Melandrach.  A third bug joined the fight soon after.  The party fought hard, but the bugs did a lot of damage before they could get events under control.  Melandrach got badly wounded and got trapped under a heavy bug corpse briefly.  Karson got grappled and dragged partially underground before his opponent died.  The group retreated to a safe distance to take a short rest before continuing to investigate.  Reidoth checked the pathway for footprints.  While the party had made a mess of things, he did find one or two to suggest someone had left camp recently.

They returned to the southern camp and cautiously looked around the closest tents and checked the campfire. The fire was cold, and the tents showed evidence of acid damage.  Looking inside suggested that if anyone had left they had not stopped to pack.  Melandrach and Karson ventured towards the northern tents, where Melandrach could make out evidence of a struggle, and drag marks in the ground that stopped in areas of freshly dug ground.  His investigation was cut short when three more bugs ripped out of the ground back at the other tents and attacked Araloth, Reidoth and Bilba.  Talindra quickly cast Hypnotic Pattern on them making this fight a cakewalk, even after a fourth joined in and almost dragged Araloth underground.

It was getting late and we’d lost two players, and a third couldn’t join this week so we called it there.  Will the party figure out what happened here?  Will someone get dragged underground never to be seen again?  Will this be a series of single encounters followed by short rests?  Tune in next week.  Same bug time.  Same bug channel.

With the second wave of giant bugs dead the party took a moment to get their breath back and discuss things.  They looked around themselves and decided that if there were any survivors here, they would be in the only building standing.  Reidoth and Melandrach lead the way, with the rest of the party following behind, close enough to react but far enough back to avoid any surprises.

They cut through the ruins in the middle of the camp on their way.  Reidoth had a cursory look around.  Evidence of rotten wood where the walls had been suggested this wooden building had decayed and the remains had been cleared away, leaving only a damaged fireplace and chimney behind, possibly as the basis for a rebuild.  He also noted that the ground seemed harder under foot and was probably stone.  He told the others they were probably safer here as a result.

Reidoth and Melandrach lead the party further west towards the log cabin, but Talindra stopped at the ruined fireplace to have a better look to see if she could understand what had happened to the building or if it was being rebuilt.  Something in the fireplace caught her attention and she shifted a few stones and found something.  A bundle of sticks tied together that looked too fresh for their surroundings.  She dug them out and pulled them free and gave them a closer look.  They looked like little man made stick figures.  She called the others back to investigate as she untied them.  Thirteen figures in total, all covered in some dried up thick red-brown liquid and inscribed with a tiny lightning bolt symbol.  Ramond asked for a closer look and concluded that this was a magic totem and its purpose is to bring ill fortune to all near it.  It wasn’t a magic item, but it held magic.  It anchored a spell in place.  He reasoned that destroying it should end its magic and began snapping the twigs and throwing them on the floor, where Talindra used her magic to burn them.  Everyone held their breath for a moment as they waited for something bad to happen, but all stayed eerily quiet.

They carefully made their way over to the only building.  Reidoth heard nothing at the door so entered.  The large room was lined with all manner of logging tools and equipment, and a door could be seen to the north.  As the party moved up he pressed his ear to the door and heard something pressed up against it move away from it as he did.  Meladrach tried to speak to them and ask if they’re OK.  They found out this was Tibor Wester, the camp foreman and the person they are making the delivery to.  He is scared and alone and has been barricaded in this room for a couple of days.  He eventually let them in and they had a full chat.  A couple of days ago these giant bugs just attacked the camp out of nowhere.  They burst out of the ground and dragged unsuspecting people below.  Tibor ran for his life and hid and doesn’t know what happened after.  He hadn’t seen anyone new around camp.  They didn’t have any enemies that he could think of.  Brian, a logger, had said he’d seen an orc a week or two back, but so what?  Orcs are everywhere and live in the area.  Nothing came of it.  The druid asked if they were replanting as fast as they were logging, and Tibor said no.  There’s no profit in that.  Reidoth pointed out that forest creatures and those who defend nature would not like that and might be looking to stop the logging.  There’s profit in survival and he should think about that.  They mentioned the stick figures and suggested that followers of Talos may have done this as their way of protecting nature.  Talos is a god of nature, after all, even if he has an extreme attitude towards it.  Tibor asked them if the stick figures were magic and the cause of all this and confirmed that they believed they had ended the spell.  He asked them to escort him safely back to town and they agreed to, once they’d ensured there was no further danger here.  He locked himself back in the cabin as they wandered around camp and encountered no further danger.

The party took Tibor back to Falcon’s lodge for the night, arriving a while after sundown.  Corwin let them in and said Falcon was happy for them to use the guest quarters while they’re dealing with the Orc problem and they could look after Tibor while they did this.  He brought them some leftovers a little while later.  They next morning they left from the south east entrance and headed towards the Woodland Manse where the Orcs had been gathering.

After a four hour hike through the woods, the trees began to thin and they came upon a foggy clearing, in the midst of which stood a crumbling two story manse all but hidden beneath thorny ivy. The large house was set atop a six-foot-high stone foundation, and the main entrance had a balcony above it. Pumpkins grew wild in patches around the manse, with several wild boars feeding among them. The boars snorted with contempt when anyone drew near.

As the party drifted slowly towards the door, which had a board head scratched in to it, Reidoth decided to cast Detect Thoughts and approached the nearest boar.  The boar was hungry and was looking for nibbles amongst the pumpkin patch.  It could remember having found a tasty truffle a week ago and was hopeful of finding another.  Satisfied that this was just an ordinary boar he turned to the party and shared this with them and went to join them.  Talindra pointed out that a devious person might hide fake boars amongst real ones.  Just because one is real that doesn’t mean they all are.  Reidoth turned back and approached another boar.  As he got closer to the first it ran off in to the trees.  This second boars surface thoughts were a little different, “Boar.  Boar.  I’m a boar looking for food.  I hope there’s something tasty.  What are they looking at?  Are they looking at me?”

Reidoth used his latent telepathy to inform the others, one by one, that this is not a real boar and something was up.  As he was doing this, the boar decided to investigate a pumpkin patch a little further away, putting the building between it and half the party, while trying to act innocent.  The party readied weapons and initiative was rolled. (DM: They also had a chat I’m not entirely sure was in or out of character discussing their plan of attack.  Either way, they all agreed on what they were about to do.  What’s rule 1 of D&D?  Don’t split the party.  What did they decide to do?)

Bilba unleashed an arrow into the suspect boar (DM: Critting for 46 points of damage), hitting it hard enough to kill a real boar, but it refused to die.  It let out a screeching roar.  Karson opened the front door and ran through the building, passing through four rooms and having a distant glance in to a fifth.  The first two rooms were empty, save for a set of stairs leading up.  The third room was a flagstoned courtyard that has a pillared arcade to the east. Seven windows on the upper level overlooked the courtyard, in the middle of which was a five foot wide stone well with thick vines erupting from it.  He concluded this did not look good.  Guttural snorts and yells erupting from the upper southeast corner of the manse signalled the presence of Orcs nearby.

He ran across the courtyard to the opposite doorway.  While the building was well enough lit by windows and holes, this room was plunged in dim light, making it hard to see well within.  However a group of twig blights inside blocked his entrance.  He quickly backed up in to the entrance lobby.  Ramond dashed through the building and past Karson in to the courtyard and cast Shield of Faith.  Talindra followed up behind, ending up in the foyer. Back outside, Thorivor put two arrows in to the suspect boar, which cried out and died.  As he hit the floor his form changed in to that of a Half-Orc.

The boars outside all began making their way towards the screeching.  As one approached Reidoth he Produced Flame at it, singeing it.  Thorivor got attacked by another and Bilba was engaged by one more.

(DM: That’s the end of round 1.  For those playing along at home we now have 2 fights on the go at the same time.  Inside we have Talindra, Ramond, Karson and Melandrach facing Twig Blights.  Outside we have Bilba, Thorivor, Reidoth and Araloth facing Boars and not-boars.  The party have definitely split themselves.  What could possibly go wrong?  Oh if they could see the hidden tokens I can see)

Melandrach went in to the courtyard and began Radiant Sunbolting Twig Blights, killing two before backing up.  Bilba drew hew sword and injured her boar.  Araloth ran over and finished it off.  Karson advanced up to beside the Twig Blights doorway and readied an attack.  Ramond stepped through that doorway and took in his surroundings, lit up by the flames from his sword. What used to be some sort of laboratory lay in ruins, its furnishings broken and heaped against the walls. In the middle of the room, painted on the floor with mud, was a ten-foot-wide symbol depicting three lightning bolts joined at their tips.  Where the lightning bolts converged, a Half-Orc wearing hide armour was performing an eerie dance while consuming the entrails of a dead possum. Surrounding the Half-Orc were several small twig figures, watching on.  Ramond shouted out that there’s load of Twig Blights and a ritual that must be stopped.  He then cast Command on the Half-Orc, ordering it to approach.

Thorivor dropped his bow and drew his Rapier, and moved to flank.  He killed his boar and moved back towards his bow.  Reidoth Misty Stepped away from his boar back to behind Araloth and threw more produced flame at it.  From within the building, Talindra turned around and Eldritch Blasted to death a boar as it ran by outside.  She then moved in to the courtyard.  The Twig Blights advanced around Ramond, who was blocking the door. Three attacked but he blocked them all.  The Half Orc behind them stopped what he was doing and cast a spell.  Lighting briefly crackled over him and faded.  The boars moved up and attacked, hurting Araloth.  One ran in to the bushes, transformed in to a Half-orc and Lightning Bolted Araloth and Bilba.

Melandrach moved to behind Ramond and Sunbolted two Twig Blights.  He stepped in to the newly vacant space and threw out two punches killing a third Blight.  Bilba sheathed her sword, stepped back, and shot the Half-Orc in the bushes.  Araloth killed the two boars engaging him. Before heading towards the entrance.  Karson stepped over Mel’s dead blights and let his new axe, Hew, taste Twig Blight, killing two, and a third with Talon in his offhand.  Another door in the courtyard 10 foot from the blights swung open and a group of Orcs began rushing out.  Talindra found herself surrounded (DM: Underwear was audibly soiled IRL at this point).  Two made attacks, but luck was on Talindra’s side.  One hit Ramond though.  Ramond smote that Orc, who barely survived the strike, but died to Ramonds second.  Outside, Thorivor sunk four arrows in to that Half-orc, finally killing it, before advancing towards the building.  Reidoth followed him and threw some more flame at the nearby boar.  He soaked the damage, suggesting he was not really a boar.  He also Healing Worded Araloth, who needed the help.

Back inside, Talindra cast Hypnotic Pattern on the Orcs and Twig Blights.  She tried to angle it as best she could, but caught Ramond in the effect.  Most of the enemy were left in a daze.  Unfortunately, so was Ramond.  Talindra stepped away and an orc swung but missed her.  She then moved in to the Blight room and cast shillelagh on her staff.  The Twig Blights moved up towards the party, attacking who they could, but did no damage.  The Half-Orc behind them ran away through a door and vanished.  One of the boars turned in to a Half-orc and threw a lightning bolt through Araloth and Bilba and headed towards the doors, as the last remaining boar engaged Araloth.

Melandrach drew his longsword and killed two more Blights.  He called out, “Backing up!”, and retreated towards the foyer, engaging the unfazed orc in the courtyard.  Bilba (2hP!) moved to beside the healer and killed the last boar beside Araloth.  Araloth chased after the outside Half-Orc, swinging and missing twice.  Karson killed two more Blights and backed up in to the courtyard.  Most of the Orcs were dazed, but two were awake.  One swung at but missed Melandrach.  The other at the back shook his nearby friend awake.  Thorivor moved closer to the building and put two arrows in to the Half-Orc outside.  Reidoth cast his Aura of Vitality and then used it to heal Bilba.  Talindra called her familiar down from the roof to shake Ramond awake.  She then stepped in to the Blight room and cast Shatter, killing the last of the Twig Blights, before retreating.  From above the courtyard they could hear someone banging on a window and shouting out, “Wake up you lazy Vine Blights and defend this place!”  The outside Half-Orc stepped between Araloth and Thorivor and cast Thunderwave, pushing Araloth back and almost killing him, but only hurting Thorivor.  Then, from out of the well the mutant vine was growing from, two new creatures appeared.  Man shaped figures made of vines.  They stepped up to Melandrach and attacked, but he dodged both their blows.

It was gone midnight and two of our players had already gone to bed.  This wasn’t gonna end quickly, so we’ve called it there.  We will be down at least 3 players next week and I’m not having a TPK with that many missing so we are taking the week off.  The party is still split.  Four are outside.  Inside, three could escape, but Ramond is mostly boxed in.  Thankfully, most enemies are still dazed by Hypnotic Pattern.  It’s the main reason anyone is still alive.

Melandrach killed the only undazed orc and punched a nearby Vine Blight, while outside Bilba killed the final shapeshifter and ran in to the house.  In a pumpkin patch Araloth took a moment to get his Second Wind and then followed Bilba.  Karson moved to flank a Vine Blight and beat it almost to death while the two Orcs at the back tried to shake their friends awake.  Ramond murdered one of the Orcs and shouted out for everyone to back up through toe door and retreated towards it.  Thorivor stepped inside and killed an Orc at the back with two arrows.  Reidoth ran inside and healed Araloth while Talindra used her Rod of the Pact to recharge a spell slot.  The two vine blights sunk their fists in to the floor and a mess of vines and roots grew out around them, turning the ground in to rough terrain and Restraining Melandrach, Araloth and Talindra.

Not distracted by the roots binding him, Melandrach finished off one of the Blights and damaged the other.  Bilba sunk an arrow in to it too, nearly killing it.  Araloth tore the vines and roots from his body and baked up towards the entrance, walking along the walls and ceiling.  Karson moved deeper in to the room to flank and kill the Vine Blight.  Two Orcs moved out of the southern room to flank and attack Karson, but missed.  Ramond moved up then smote and killed one of these Orcs before stepping back.  Re shouted again for everyone to back up.  Thorivor put two arrows in to the other Orc, dropping it while Reidoth Healed Bilba.  Talindra sent her familiar to watch to back of the house for anyone escaping and then used the staff to cast Web, covering the floor and sinking down in to the well for 20 feet, where the vine blights had come from.  An upstairs window on the south west corner of the courtyard opened and a Half Orc appeared.  He thrust his hands forward as Talindra reacted to Counterspell and nothing happened.

While Melandrach struggled unsuccessfully against the roots grappling him, Bilba killed the nearest dazed Orc.  Araloth ran along the walls in to the room, avoiding the roots and the webbing, and attacked an orc at the back, who resisted the webbing, returning the attack, before backing out of the webbing through the doorway.  Karson looked up at the window and unleashes his sword Talon as a hawk to attack him.  Ramond moved around and tore the roots away from Melandrach before stepping back to the door and shouting through it, “You three go flush out the Priest from upstairs!”  Thorivor tipped him the nod and ran up the stairs but the upper steps collapsed under him.  He fell and landed on some crude spikes.  He picked himself up and walked out from under and looked in to the room to the east, which was covered in graffiti painted in blood of boars chasing stick men.  There were also 8 basic stick figure dolls around the room.  Individually they looked pretty crude, but collectively they looked familiar.  One was holding a stick in two hands, another was holding a stick cycle, and a third had a small stick bow.  They seemed to be representative of the party.  He spun around and fired his heat seeking arrow to finish off the Orc fighting Araloth.  Reidoth healed Thorivor, and then went up the stairs, carefully stepping over the new hole.  An open set of doors at the east end drew his attention and he cautiously advanced towards the.  He peeked through the doors and could see the Half Orc looking through a window in to the courtyard.  Reidoth backed towards the stairs a bit and called out, “He’s up here!”  Talindra cast Sacred Flame at the target in the window, who attacked and killed Talon before retreating south through the double doors.

Melandrach and Bilba ran up the stairs and followed Reidoth’s pointing to give chase after the Priest. (DM: It was at this point they started discussing taking the house for themselves and fixing it up.  This conversation continued for the rest of the session) Araloth ran along the walls and climbed in through the window the priest had tried to cast through.  He ran in to the room to the south and attacked the Priest.  Karson freed Talindra from the roots while Ramond backed up through the door, braced for attack and shouted for Karson and Talindra to get behind him.  Thorivor stood behind Ramond and readied a reactionary shot with his bow.  Reidoth charged in to the room with the Priest and healed Araloth, while downstairs Talindra Eldritch blasted an Orc to death.  The Priest backed up behind Araloth and unleashed a Thunderwave at him, pushing him back.

Melandrach ran behind the Priest and attacked him, while Bilba ran behind Reidoth and shot the Priest.  Araloth flanked the Priest with Melandrach and attacked him.  Karson backed up behind Ramond and cast Aid on Ramond, Thorivor and himself.  Thorivor killed one more Orc with his bow and injured the other, while upstairs Reidoth healed Araloth again, before “Commanding” the Priest to Grovel.  Talindra finished off the last Orc with an Eldritch Blast.  The priest stepped towards the hole in the floor, cast Thunderwave at Araloth and Melandrach, pushing Araloth away.  He then jumped down the hole, taking a free strike from Melandrach, and landing on his bum.  He picked himself up and tried to step out of line of site of those in the courtyard.

Melandrach dove down the hole and performed an effortless super hero landing, before attacking the Priest with his Longsword.  His second blow caught the bottom of his armour, lifting it.  The tip of his blade cut his stomach and he seemed fine at first, but then the wound opened and spilled his guts on the floor.  He collapsed a moment later, dead.  Melandrach then ran out the other door in to the courtyard.  Every known enemy was dead, but there were still sounds of struggling from down in the well where the Vine blights had come out of.  The party were cautious of this and spent the next few rounds with most of them watching the well and dealing with the last 3 Blights as they came out.  Thorivor set fire the web which burned away slowly for three turns before Talindra dismissed it.  While this was going on Araloth explored upstairs and disturbed a Stirge nest.  He ran away from them, straight down the stairs and told the others.  Karson went up to investigate and got swarmed.  Six of the eleven Stirges latched on to him and drained most of his blood.  A few people went up and cleared off what they could, and Ramond used his Wand of Magic Missiles to put two shots in to each of the remaining three on Karson.

When there were no more evident threats they took their time exploring the house and looting the bodies.  Ramond burned all the Blight bodies and dragged all the other corpses outside.  The Priest had a fragment of a leather map with the Manse and Falcons Hunting lodge marked on it, along with a third new location: The Circle of Thunder, a little to the north.  In a large bedroom upstairs they found a secret compartment in the mantelpiece which contained a Staff.  There was also a secret door to a small chamber containing a cloak and a magically locked chest.  Reidoth dispelled it and they found a rod inside.  A Detect Magic spell revealed all three items to be magical.  While Talindra sat on the bed to identify them Karson and Reidoth went back to the courtyard to deal with the tree growing out of the well.  As they hacked and burnt at it, it began to leak what looked like blood, instead of sap.  They chopped down what they could, but it had roots deep in the well.  They considered spending the night here, but opted to take a short rest and then head back to Falcons Lodge for the night.

Magic items:

Cloak of Billowing, given to Araloth

Staff of Birdcalls, given to Reidoth

Immovable Rod, given to Bilba

We ended the session as the party pulls up outside Falcon’s lodge at about 6-7pm, but it was midnight IRL so we called it there.  Somehow, nobody died.

Rain crept in as the party headed back from the woodland manse.  When Falcon’s lodge was within sight they relaxed a little, until they saw Falcon come running out of the northern treeline.  He stopped, took a look at them, and shouted, “We got incoming!  There’s a dragon behind me!”  He turned around and fired two arrows in to the darkness.  Then from out of the trees ran Cryovain, chasing him!

Thorivor took a few steps forward and fired his bow four times, but only hit once with a Grasping Arrow, causing brambles to grow around his legs.  Ramond walked forward, used his Pearl of power, cast Shield of Faith on himself and called out, “Spread out!  Don’t give him an easy target!”  Reidoth walked forward and cast haste on Ramond.  Falcon fired two more shots at the dragon, and backed up further, as Karson stepped up and fired three shots at Cryovain.  Cryovain took flight towards Falcon, taking Grapsing Arrow damage, and unleashed his Frightful Presence frightening Melandrach, Falcon, Talindra, Thorivor and Bilba.  He then slashed and bit at Falcon, hurting him badly.  Bilba steadied her nerves and her bow and put an arrow in to him, as Talindra Hexed him (Disadvantage to Strength), and Eldritch Blasted it before backing up behind the palisades.  Araloth ran forwards towards the compound and threw a Javelin, but it fell short.

Melandrach unleashed a series of Radiant Sunbolts at the dragon from his hiding position behind the tower as Thorivor fired two more shots at Cryovain.  The Hasted Ramond ran behind the dragon and Smote it with his sword.  The dragon flapped its wings, driving air downwards with force, knocking both Ramond and Falcon prone and knocking Falcon unconscious.  Cryovain then flew back towards the trees.  Reidoth moved towards Falcon and cast a Healing Word in to him.  Flacon picked himself up and shot at the dragon again, before backing up a little.  Karsons arrows went wide of Cryovain who tried to break free of the Grasping Vines which were hurting him for every move, but he failed.  He then flew back and up further away from the group.  (DM: At this point with the dragon being 70-80 foot above the ground all the ranged characters started doing trig before declaring their actions)  Bilba sunk an arrow in to him, and Talindra remained hiding behind the far walls, too scared to come out.  Araloth ran up the side of the tower and called his Javelin back to his hand.

Ramond hit the dragon with a Guiding Bolt and then ran past it.  (DM: He did maths.  Turns out that with all the effects in play Ramond can currently outrun the flying dragon every turn!)  Reidoth got his sling out and made a disappointing shot.  Falcon and Karson took more shots too.  The dragon then flew low over the forest at full speed, using the trees to break line of sight.  This didn’t stop Thorivor who fired a Seeking arrow in to him, and the vines from his Grasping Shot continued to bite in to the dragon.  Ramond gave chase through the wood keeping pace for the next seven turns.  The dragon flew north and then took a wide turn, east then south, around the Lodge.  As Ramond’s Haste wore off he pulled himself up a nearby tree with ease and watched the dragon fly South until he faded from view.  He then climbed down and returned to the party.

Reidoth healed Falcon a little more and Karson handed him 30 Goodberries.  They then all had a chat about what had happened.  Falcon said he had been out hunting and the dragon had just swooped down and attacked him.  He’d got lucky and avoided his icy breath and ran for home while taking pot shots.  He’d seen the dragon out hunting a couple of times before over recent weeks, but had always been safe.  The party thought about the last time they’d chased him off.  Then and now, he had retreated in the direction of the Sword Mountains.  Falcon agreed that their snowy peaks would make a suitable home for a White Dragon.  He would want somewhere cold, and his presence would only make conditions worse.  A white dragon would warp nature around its lair, eventually spreading extreme cold and ice for miles around it.  The party decided that wandering aimlessly through the mountains looking for a lair is an option, but a very poor one.  They should continue to see if they can find more information before heading out, and do more to prepare.  Too many of them fell afoul of Cryvain’s Frightful Presence, and his breath weapon scares them.

Falcon thanked them again for saving his life and invited them inside for dinner and lodgings.  Over dinner they discussed events at the Manse and he encouraged them to clear out any further Orcs or Talosans at the Circle of Thunder.  He said it was an ancient stone circle built by druids or something centuries ago.  It was a place of worship to nature, or a nature god or something, but had been unused for a very long time.  He didn’t really have anything further to offer them as a reward, but said they are forever welcome to stop by for room and board whenever they are nearby.  When he went to get them the reward for their time at the Manse they discussed who would get the Boots of Elvenkind and decided the Paladin had a weakness in this area so he should get them.  Falcon returned and offered them the boots, and also threw in a small pouch of coin as an extra thank you.  Around this point they noticed that Thorivor, Melandrach and Araloth were not looking good.  Reidoth and Falcon checked them out and they had swollen and itchy insect bites.  Falcon said he’s seen this before.  The bugs and vermin in the woods carry an infection called Afkitus.  Most of the time people are immune, but every now and then it gets through their defences.  They’re in for a rough night and won’t be much use for anything until they’ve had at least a good night’s rest, perhaps more. (DM: Their players were missing and they’ve said in the past that we are uncomfortable risking PC lives when their players aren’t around so it’s an IC reason not to include them in what I know is coming up next).  Everyone left the dining hall and crossed the courtyard back to the guest quarters.  The rain outside had gotten worse and thunder could be heard in the distance.  They got a good night’s sleep, although fever and illness clearly got the better of those infected.

In the early hours of the morning Reidoth and Bilba were woken up by a sound they realised wasn’t part of the storm, which was now directly overhead.  There was a bell ringing.  Someone was sounding an alarm.  They ran round and woke the others, although the sick were unresponsive.  If they did get them to wake they were clearly delusional, responding to things no one else could see.  As people pulled themselves out of bed, Reidoth went outside in to the rain.  Falcon was on top of the eastern tower and shouted down to him that he could see something big moving through the woods heading their way.  They had five, perhaps ten minutes before it arrived.  People grabbed their armour and ran up the tower to look as they got equipped.  By the movement in the trees it appeared that a large force accompanied by something large was moving with purpose towards the lodge.  They quickly formulated a plan and got in to position.  Talindra, Bilba, Falcon, and Reidoth and Talindras owl Familiars at the top of the tower, with everyone else in the courtyard, ready to deal with anyone who breeches the palisades.  As the force drew near the treeline they could make out the occasional blue-white flash, and then a blue-white glow started to emerge as the treeline itself began to tremble.

DM: It was approaching 11pm and I pointed out this was not going to be a quick fight.  Some of us were OK with going on, but people needed sleep so we called it.  We will hopefully have some of the missing people back next week in time to deal with this new threat.

We had difficulties this week.  Talindra didn’t have his computer so was on coms but couldn’t see the game or her character sheet and I kept forgetting this.  Everyone had had a busy day and we started an hour late.  We are still figuring out Dynamic Lighting (I think this is our third map using it) and I never know for sure what the players can and can’t see.  I kept forgetting Legendary Actions.  An 8 man party so heavily skews any encounter that Gorthok has 75hp in the module and I had to crank him up to 400hp here and give him new toys.  The map quite often didn’t make sense.  We all made the best of it.

As for the maps below, if it’s greyed out, they shouldn’t be able to see it.  They can only see each other’s HP values, but can see enemy HP bars.  Bilba, Falcon, and Talindra are at the top of the tower, but needed to be hanging over the edge so their tokens could see beyond the walls there.  They are taken from my screen and I can see everything, including each individual light source and all the hidden stuff.

A huge boar with glowing blue-white eyes and lighting crackling all over its body ran out of the woods from the north-east, surrounded by maybe two dozen Orcs, with great axes raised.  As they ran across the clearing they shouted out, “Gorthok!”  From on top of the tower Bilba shot the boar, while Falcon tried to thin the herd.  Talindra cast a Web to try and trap the boar and as many Orcs as she could.  Ramond and Karson moved to flank the northern door and braced for attack.  Ramond telepathically called for Thunderer, his warhorse, to come and aid them.

The sounds of shouting outside woke up Melandrach, who’s fever had broken at last.  He got out of bed, grabbed his longsword and went outside to see what was going on. The Boar continued its charge, ignoring the web, and rammed in to the palisades, ramming a big hole through them.  Karson jumped out of the way of falling timbers, but one caught Ramond around the head, knocking him prone.  Karson and Ramond took their readied attacks on Gorthok as best they could.  As Karson’s blade cut the Boar a spark of lightning jumped off of it has zapped Karson.  Ramond also got shocked in return for his Smite, but his magic armour makes him resistant to lightning damage.  As the timbers fell, Gorthok let out a loud squeal, and Araloth woke up, feeling rough but capable of acting.  He grabbed his sword and shield and headed outside.  Reidoth cast haste on Ramond and then hid around the corner.  Bilba put another arrow in his hide as Ramond picked himself up, cast Shield of Faith on himself, and Smote Gorthok twice, getting zapped each time, while shouting, “The Boar must die!” (DM: I finally remember he has legendary action at this point, but repeatedly forget during this combat.  I’m still new to 5E.) The boar counterattacked Ramond with his hooves, doing bludgeoning and thunder damage.  Karson Marked the boar and then landed a critical hit with his axe, while getting shocked back.  From the top of the tower, Talindra hexed and Eldritch Blasted Gorthok.  The Orcs ran forward and tried to flood the breech, but mostly found their path blocked.  Some followed the path south.  The Orcs that could, attacked Karson and Ramond.  Falcon took shots at the southern Orcs as they ran by.

Melandrach crossed the courtyard and killed two of the Orcs attacking Ramond, and stepped in to the gap, blocking the hole in the fence.  Gorthok reacted to this by continuing his attack on Ramond, but missed with his tusks.  He then used his turn to hot Ramond with his hooves but miss with his tusks.  Reidoth’s owl familiar flew down and conveyed a Cure Wounds to him.  Araloth left the guest quarter, asking what was going on.  Falcon shouted out that the Orcs were circling round to the south.   Araloth ran over and killed the last orc trying to attack Ramond.  He then backed up a bit, still confused by events.  Bilba put another arrow in to Gorthoks hide as Ramond Smote it three times, getting zapped for each.  Gorthok attacked him back with his Lightning Tusks.  Ramond continued to chant out praise to Tempus throughout as he held his ground.  Karson cut the boar twice, getting shocked each time.  Gorthok rose up and trampled Ramond into unconsciousness with his Thunder Hooves as Talindra Blasted the Boar from above.  She then used her magics to heal Ramond back to consciousness as she sent her familiar south to see what those Orcs are up to.  The Orcs around the Boar started helping each other over the Palisades, ready to attack the party from behind.  Falcon shot at the Orcs to the south, killing one.  He shouted out, “They’re at the south gate”.

Melandrach landed two attacks and got shocked twice.  Gorthok reacted by trying to gore Ramond, but missing.  He then trampled Ramond unconscious again and then gored Karson with his tucks.  Reidoth healed Ramond using his owl again as Araloth ran in and stabbed the Boar, getting zapped, before backing up.  Gorthok reacted by failing to trample Karson.  Bilba hit the boar from above again, as Ramond picked himself up and Smote the boar once more.  He called his mount, Thunderer, over to help deal with the Orcs at their backs.  Gorthok kicked Karson in to unconsciousness.    Thunderer charged the nearest Orc and trampled it to the ground and then kicked it to death, before backing away.  Gorthok kicked Ramond again, knocking him out.  Talindra healed Ramond, and threw a web at the Boar and the cluster of Orcs, allowing the old web to expire.  The two Orcs that could, moved up and attacked Melandrach.  One ran over to attack the horse as those outside struggled with the web and tried to scale the walls.  Falcon killed one of the Orcs flanking Melandrach.

Melandrach swung his blade at the Boar, missing twice, but punched and kicked the nearby Orc to death.  Gorthok gored Melandrach to unconsciousness, and ran out of the webbing, stepping over Ramond, Karson, and an Orc, failing to trample Ramond on the way.  Reidoth used his familiar to heal Karson, and advanced towards his fallen friends.  Araloth took a wild swing at Gorthok and held his ground.  Bilba leant over the edge of the tower and put an arrow in to the rump of the Boar.  Ramond stood up, screamed defiance towards the Boar, and hit it with a mighty swing.  He got zapped in return.  Both of them are on their last few hit points.  He swung again, and missed.  His third blow landed, hitting hard enough to kill it, but as the light in its eyes faded, the spark in its soul reignited.  Weak on its legs its eyes were brighter than ever and the lighting arcing over it became erratic.  Ramond survived the return shock.  Karson got up, turned his sword in to a metal bird and set it on the Boar.  It landed an attack, and got shocked in return.  The bird vanished and the sword reappeared in Karson’s hand.  A bolt of lightning hit the boar from above.  There was a bright flash of light, and the Boar vanished, leaving onl a large circle of charred ground where it had been.  He then chased after an Orc to the east.  Thunderer tried to attack one of the Orcs on him, but missed.  Talindra tried to look south, but couldn’t see any of the Orcs, so she Blasted the Orc attacking Melandrach, and also another in the web, killing both.  She sent her familiar to look for the southern Orcs and could see them working their way around the building, bunching up by a door.  One of them was dead with an arrow in it.  From his vantage point by the open door to the dining room, Reidoth saw those Orcs open their door and run through the dining room, heading for the stairs.  Two of the Orcs outside hurt Thunderer while the others struggled with the web.  Falcon killed one of the webbed Orcs with his longbow.

Reidoth moved to see Melandrach and used his familiar to heal him.  He alerted the others to the Orcs inside.  Araloth moved over and attacked one of the Orcs attacking Thunderer, who Bilba then finished off.  Ramond killed the other Orc, drank a healing potion, and then mounted Thunderer.  He then rode around the building in search of Orcs.  As he circled around, Corwin poked his head out of a window over the stables and said the Orcs had gone in the doorway opposite.  Karson went after the two remaining Orcs from the cluster, killing one.   With no viable targets and the courtyard mostly clean, Talindra made her way down the stairs.  She could hear footsteps in the next room, so she remained in the stairway with a readied Eldritch blast.  The Orcs continued their way up the stairs and around the halls mezzanine balcony.  The last Orc outside broke free of the web and then bolted for the trees.  Falcon tried to shoot it, but missed.

End Turn 6

Melandrach ran in to the building and up the stairs and fired two Sunbolts at the trailing Orc, but missed.  Reidoth entered the dining hall, and could see the Orcs running around the balcony level above.  He produced a flame and threw it at one of them.  He shouted to alert the others he’d found more Orcs.  Araloth entered and chased up the stairs.  Bilba made her way down the stairs and on to the landing.  Ramond rode over to the door, dismounted and ran through the door, up the stairs, killed the trailing Orc, pushing him over the edge, and moved on to injure another.  Karson gave chase to the fleeing Orc outside, as Talindra stepped out through the doorway and Eldritch blasted the closest Orc.  The inside Orcs took stock of their situation, considered jumping down, but decided to go down swinging.  Ramond got beaten to unconsciousness again (DM: I really need more ways of saying this), but Talindra was lucky enough to dodge a charge.

End Turn 7

Melandrach Sunbolted both Orcs, killing them both.  Karson finished off the one outside.  Reidoth ran up the stairs and healed Ramond.

DM: It was late and we’d had a long hard fight so we called it and will start here next session